BJP mins, MLAS allay Durga Puja fears: Make it grand but apolitical

Kolkata: Ministers and MLAs who attended a marquee blood donation event organized by the Forum for Durgotsab, an umbrella body representing more than 500 Durga Pujas in Kolkata and elsewhere, sought to allay concerns over how the festival would be held in the city after the change in govt.

They encouraged forum members to organize Durga Puja on a grand scale, with one caveat: keep the festival apolitical.“Do carry on with the Durga Puja like you have in the past. The govt expects it to flourish more. There will be no major change in policy that poses a hurdle to the celebration,” industry, commerce and enterprises minister Tapas Roy said at the venue on Sunday.Baranagar MLA Sajal Ghosh, who also visited the camp at Netaji Indoor Stadium and Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, reiterated the govt’s support for the festival but warned against political interference. “Do the Durga Puja well but don’t allow politics to enter. If there is any attempt to take over a puja, do let us know,” said Ghosh, chief organizer of the crowd-pulling puja at Santosh Mitra Square. In the past couple of years, he had accused the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee govt of trying to disrupt his puja.While Ghosh is the only major BJP politician associated with a big puja, several Trinamool ministers had been linked to large-budget pujas, including Firhad Hakim with Chetla Agrani, Aroop Biswas with Suruchi Sangha, and Sujit Bose with Sree Bhumi Sporting. Councillors like Debashis Kumar of Tridhara Sammelani and Sushanta Ghosh of Rajdanga Naba Uday Sangha have also been associated with prominent pujas.Minister of state with independent charge for youth services and sports Indranil Khan also visited the blood donation camp and reiterated the govt’s support for Durga Puja, as did MLAs Purnima Chakraborty and Manab Guha.

Forum functionaries maintained that the organization has always been apolitical. They said it was formed during the Left Front govt in July 2010, after permission for the Shib Mandir Durga Puja was withdrawn in 2009. However, the presence of several Trinamool functionaries associated with popular pujas meant the forum was often seen as having a strong Trinamool connection.Forum chairman and founder member Partho Ghosh acknowledged that the grant introduced by the former CM, along with other incentives, had contributed to the perception that the forum leaned towards the party in power.

“You cannot organize Kolkata’s Durga Puja without the govt’s support. That the ministers and MLAs who came on Sunday did not want any political interference in the festival is music to our ears. We would like to stay an apolitical organization,” he said.Forum president Sandipan Banerjee said the encouraging words from ministers and MLAs will help calm puja organizers.“This year, major big ticket Durga Pujas will be affected as Trinamool functionaries who patronized them are in trouble. But after what we heard on Sunday, we feel the transition will be smooth. We have, nevertheless, urged the ministers to help organize a meeting with the CM where we want to seek clarity on the govt’s views about the duration of the festival and the carnival event that had started a decade ago,” Banerjee said.In the 10th year of the forum’s blood donation camp, more than 4,500 units of blood were collected on Sunday, surpassing last year’s figure of 4,300.