NEW DELHI, Sept 11The Kolkata Police on Friday arrested Congress leader Atanu Das for holding a protest and burning photographs of Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popularly known as Baba Bageshwar, outside the Bhawanipore police station on September 8.
The arrest in the early hours of Friday came after West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari issued the directive to the police to arrest those protesting against the preacher’s suggestion to allow only vegetarian food at the puja during the coming Durga Puja. Mr Adhikari backed Mr Shastri and said in the State Assembly that the godman’s remarks on going vegetarian during pujas were only a prescriptive.
West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar described the arrest as repression unleashed by the West Bengal government. “I strongly protest and condemn this incident of arrest. We want to ask, why was that so-called Baba Bageshwar, who made derogatory remarks about Bengalis, who insulted Bengali culture and heritage, not arrested?” Mr Sarkar said in the statement.
The Kolkata Police said during the protests held outside Bhawanipore police station on September 8, posters bearing the image of Dhirendra Shastri “were burnt, trampled upon, and slapped with shoes by the accused persons and members of the gathering.”
According to the police, the acts by the protesters “amounted to an insult to the religious sentiments of a particular community and posed a threat to public order with the potential to incite social disharmony.” Along with Atanu Das, who has been arrested, the police have also booked Ashutosh Chatterjee, general secretary of Congress, and Pradip Prasad, president, south Kolkata district Congress committee.
Mr Shastri’s remark urging Hindus in Bengal not to sell non-veg food items near Durga idols sparked a debate over dietary preferences during Durga Puja festivities.
People across the State slammed the remarks, with many saying that people from outside the region cannot lecture on dietary preferences. There has been a tradition of offering and having non-vegetarian food during the Durga Puja festival.
Many BJP leaders including some ministers in the Adhikari cabinet had criticised the preacher’s remarks against non-vegetarian food, which they said was part of the festivities and Bengalis even offer non-veg to the Goddess as “Prasad.” West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, on September 7, appeared to contain the damage by saying nobody could ask Bengalis to give up non-vegetarian food.
(Manas Dasgupta)