KOLKATA: The commissioner of police (CP) Ajay Nand of Kolkata said on Friday that police have no role in connection with the West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s announcement urging people belonging to ‘Sanatan Dharma’ can only touch Durga idols.
While speaking to reporters at Lalbazar, Kolkata Police headquarters, today Nand said, “Durga puja committees organisers decide about who will join the immersion process. Police have no role here in this system and look after law and order issues only. After the announcement made by the Chief Minister, we have asked the puja committees to follow statutory rules.”
The Kolkata Police reacted when reporters sought his comment on the Chief Minister’s instructions on Durga idols immersion issue.
“I can’t say anything about it. We have asked the Puja committees to follow rules and I have no idea about any other method of worshiping goddess Durga besides the traditional ‘Sanatan’ process,” Nand said when asked about how do the police identify people who follow ‘Sanatan Dharma’.
On Wednesday, Suvendu had said at Babughat where he had gone to inspect immersion arrangements that only people who follow Sanatan Dharma can touch Durga idols. His statements triggered controversy prompting the opposition parties in the state to intensify attacks on him.
“The purity, tradition, scriptures and rules that have been followed for thousands of years must be adhered to. This is a religious programme. It is certainly a festival but that is secondary. Primarily, it is religious. The tradition must be preserved. I have asked the CP (commissioner of police) to note down the names and identities of those who take Maa. The names and identities must be mentioned. Only those who follow Sanatan Dharma can touch the idol,” Suvendu said.
“There is nothing communal in this,” he added, speaking during the inspection of the immersion arrangements along the Hooghly.
The Chief Minister did not clarify further if he meant Puja organisers who are part of the immersion party or labourers who lift the idols from trucks and navigate low tides and slippery steps and muddy slopes to steer the giant structures into the deep waters of the Hooghly.
People belonging to different communities Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have been closely associated with several Durga Pujas in Calcutta and other places across districts for years. Every year during the festive season, hundreds of migrant labourers travel to Calcutta’s major riverbanks for idol immersion. They coordinate directly with puja organisers when they arrive with the idols at the riverfront.
Senior advocate and CPI-M leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya has slammed the Chief Minister for giving such instructions to police. “The present Chief Minister’s instruction is against the Constitution. He is acting as an anti-national by trying to establish Hindu fundamentalism. Does he have any list identifying ‘Sanatani’ and ‘non-Sanatani’? Can he clarify how to become a ‘Sanatani’? He has no answer,” Bhattacharya told the media.
“We condemn the Chief Minister, who despite being holding a constitutional post, is making such statements,” Congress spokesperson told reporters.
