KOLKATA: Days after West Bengal BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday once again made statements on Bengali dietary habits amidst the ongoing controversy over the non-vegetarian and vegetarian food issue triggered by self-styled seer Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, who is the head of Bageshwar Dham temple in Madhya Pradesh, and Hindu religious organisations.
While addressing an unveiling ceremony of the Ganesh Puja festival in Kolkata today, the Chief Minister said, “Bengalis offer prayers (puspanjali) after eating vegetarian food and they also offer ‘prasad’ with fish.”
“Dhirendra Shastri Bageshwardham Maharaj had come to Liluah, where lakhs of people had assembled. Bengalis know very well when prayers can be offered after eating vegetarian food and when ‘prasad’ with fish can be given,” Suvendu said.
On Thursday evening, Suvendu, along with several of his cabinet colleagues, was seen eating ‘prasad’ at Kalighat temple with fish as a damage-control move following Dhirendra Shastri’s controversial call to ban non-vegetarian food during the Durga Puja festival.
A large-scale controversy has erupted across West Bengal during the past couple of weeks over the forthcoming Durga Puja festival in the state, with Right-wing Hindu organisations and religious preachers like Dhirendra Krishna Shastri urging that Hindu Bengalis must avoid eating non-vegetarian food during the festival and at pandals.
Speaking at an event in Kolkata on Sunday, the Bageshwar Dham chief said he does not like it when “dirty” non-vegetarian food is eaten during Durga Puja and at gatherings linked to the festivities.
“I want the Hindus of Kolkata to awaken and boycott such people,” he said. “…[These people] cannot be considered religious.”
The Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues, BJP leaders and senior bureaucrats met Shastri in a programme in the city. Some of them were also seen offering pranam to the 26-year-old ‘Bageshwar Baba’.
Meat must not be sold near the goddess’ idol during the festival, he added.
The five-day-long festival will begin on October 6 and conclude on October 10.
Spearheading his attack on the Left, Suvendu also today raised the plight of the minorities in Bangladesh.
“The condition of Bengalis in our state could have been the same as what minorities like Chinmoy Krishna Das have been facing in Bangladesh, if Paschimbanga was not created following the Partition. The photos of the funeral of Chinmoy Krishna’s mother in Bangladesh have stirred ‘Sanatanis’ across the world,” he said.
Chinmoy Krishna, the Bangladeshi Hindu monk who had been in jail for nearly two years, was granted five hours of parole this week to attend his mother’s funeral.
Chinmoy Krishna’s 71-year-old mother died with her final wish of seeing her jailed son left unfulfilled after the Bangladeshi government denied his family’s plea for parole to visit her during her final days, according to the local media in Bangladesh.
The previous regime of the erstwhile Left and Trinamool Congress regimes in Bengal have forced people to forget the contribution of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of Jana Sangh, and Swami Pranavananda, a Hindu yogi.
Earlier on Monday, rubbing the callings of Shastri, the Bengal BJP chief said, “Aamake aamar moto thakte dao. Bangali jaa khachchhe, tai khabe. Bangali machh khabe na? Mangsho khabe na? Swami Vivekananda bole gechhen, tnar opor aabar ke achhe? Maa Kali ekhane pantha khabe. Let me live what I wish. Bengalis will eat whatever they eat traditionally. Won’t the Bengalis eat fish? Won’t they eat meat? Swami Vivekananda has also called for non-vegetarian food. Who else is there above him?”
While speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Samik reacted to Dhirendra Shastri’s call for Hindus to eat vegetarian food, avoiding non-vegetarian food items during the Durga Puja festival and at pandals.
“Eating ‘luchi’ on the day of Astami and mutton on Navami during Durga Puja festival is a Bengali tradition. This time, Bengalis will also maintain the tradition. Any physician or monk has the right to call for vegetarian food, but no one from outside can decide what someone in Bengal should eat or should not eat,” Samik said.
Showing due respect to him (Shastri), the Bengal BJP chief said that there is no scope to impose someone else’s own views on Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy.
He also said that no political prescriptions would be allowed to change someone’s dress habits in Bengal. “If someone likes ‘dhoti’ he can wear it and at the same time, if anybody likes to wear ‘lungi’ he can do it. No problem.”
Eating non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja is common among Bengali Hindus and animal sacrifice is an important part of the festival for some in the community.
On August 26, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had also issued an advisory stating that non-vegetarian food should be kept away from Durga Puja pandals to maintain the sanctity of the religious festival in the state.
The Opposition Trinamool Congress and CPI-M said that Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had welcomed Shastri in the state.
They claimed that the BJP “wants to snatch fish and meat from the plates of Bengalis”.
“For this purpose, raids are being conducted in all restaurants before the Puja,” a Trinamool leader said.