Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 25: While serving fish in a Congress gathering in Ayodhya this week created a stir among a section of sadhus for hurting the “religious sentiments of the Sanatanis,” some people in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat are taking pride in naming a wholesale fish market after him!
The incident happened in the diamond city of Surat where the Fish Merchants Association named the wholesale fish market after the Prime Minister to which some of the fish traders took strong objections pointing out Mr Modi himself being a strict vegetarian, would not appreciate a fish market being named after him.
The “Shree Narendra Modi Wholesale Fish Market” set up by the Surat Fish Merchants Association was inaugurated on Monday with a picture of the prime minister on the banner. However, following objections from a section of the fish traders in the city, the banner was covered with a white cloth when the market resumed operations on Tuesday.
The Association was taking pride in naming the market after Mr Modi because, as its president pointed out, it was constructed with assistance from the “Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana,” a Central government scheme to promote fisheries under its “Blue Revolution” project. It was the first municipal corporation-run wholesale fish market in Surat having 80 outlets.
The inauguration, however, saw a verbal duel between some members of the association. Surendra Lashkari, one of the veteran fish traders of Surat took strong objections to the name given to the fish market. “This damages the image and identity of the Prime Minister, who is a vegetarian, so I requested the association president to remove his name,” Lashkari said.
Kalpesh Navsariwala, the president of the Fish Merchant Association, however, not only defended the decision, but he also took pride in associating the Prime Minister’s name with the fish market. “This market was built with funds from Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, and the Prime Minister promotes fisheries under the Blue Revolution. It only gives us pride to name the market after him.” He added that he took the association’s members into confidence before proposing the name.
The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana is a scheme to bring about a ‘Blue Revolution’ through the sustainable and responsible development of the fisheries sector in India.” Among the mandates of the scheme is a provision for developing “modern wholesale fish markets including supermarkets, retail fish markets and outlets, mobile fish and live fish markets so as to ensure quality and hygienic fish to the consumers.”
With an estimated investment of Rs 20,050 crore over a five-year period from 2020-21, the scheme is implemented by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
The Centre and the Gujarat government have each contributed Rs 3 crore to the Surat fish market, and the municipal corporation has contributed Rs 1.5 crore.
Surat Municipal Corporation’s executive engineer Rajesh Ganjawala said the association sent a proposal to the civic body a couple of days before the inauguration, suggesting it be named after Prime Minister Modi. “We have forwarded the proposal to the cultural committee. Further action will be taken depending on what this committee decides.”
The cultural committee is one of the several panels whose decisions must be ratified by the standing committee before they are moved to the general board, the municipal corporation’s highest decision making body which will take a final decision if Mr Modi’s name will stick with fish!
Fish was at the centre of a major controversy sparked off in Ayodhya after some sadhus slammed the organisers of a welcome party for serving fish to the guests. The party was thrown by some local Congress leaders on the occasion of a visit to the temple town of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai and others. They had claimed that serving of fish in the “holy month of Shravan” had hurt the religious sentiments of the followers of the Sanatan Dharma.