By Tirthankar Mitra
What’s in a name; very little or quite a lot. A war of words has broken out between the red and saffron camps, even as Bengalis all over the world ready themselves for their biggest festival of year, when the Goddess Durga descends on earth with her entourage.
Riding the crest of the wave of electoral success, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has called upon the puja organisers not to let the Left set up book stalls in their pandal till the word “Durgotsav” replaces the word “Saradotsav” on these stalls. Publications of Left political literature of varying ideologies are on display at these makeshift stalls during puja days, where they are purchased by activists, fellow travellers and some Opposition leaders with an intent to launch an ideological onslaught.
Chief Minister Adhikari has unwittingly kicked up a storm in his bid to impose his brand of politics. His current political ideology goes hand in hand with the narrow Sangh view of religion.
The book stalls set up by the Left outfits like CPI(M) or CPI(M-L) or SUCI(M), atheist outfits all, make no mention of the goddess Durga on the occasion of whose arrival to her parental home, the five-day festival is celebrated with pomp and show, and why these stalls are set up at the pandals. For Bengalis, no festival, religious or cultural, is complete without ample food and literature stalls, to indulge their gastronomic and cerebral inclinations. For the Left, like others, Durga Puja offers a platform to showcase their old and new ideologically charged publications. Customary to their communist atheistic belief, the left-wing publications and stalls describe the occasion in secular terms, as “Saradotsav”, since it need not ascribe strictly religious significance to the festivities, but more of a cultural carnival.
The Pujas have long been a time for the left-wing publication outfits to make a wider public connect, while also making some money via the books and magazines sales for their respective organisations. Pandal hoppers browsing the books on old and new party literature and sometimes buying a few is a long-established, almost hallowed practice.
There are no takers among the Left political outfits for Adhikari’s diktat yet. After all, it is a call from the saffron ideology, which is anathema to the left ideologues and supporters.
But flouting CM Adhikari’s order would come at their own peril. Unless they toe the line laid down by the West Bengal Chief Minister, puja organisers might be compelled to disallow setting up their stalls.
As for the organisers, the last thing they can do is rub the Adhikari government the wrong way. It can withhold police nod and free power connection for the puja days, besides creating a lot of other troubles, marring the occasion which the locals look forward to all the year round.
The Left, given its agonistic standpoint, appears to be loath to drop the secular ‘Saradotsav’ and swap it with the goddess’s name. And for it they have invoked Rabindranath Tagore’s own writings.
Indeed, the festival is often referred to as Saradotsav in by Tagore. Moreover, the poet who is closer to every Bengali’s heart than any political leader can ever be, has associated it with another emotive occasion.
It is the return of a daughter to her parental home. Indeed, Durga is considered to be a daughter returning to the plains with her children from her husband Shiva’s abode in the Himalayas.
Her stay is short. Nothing is denied to her during this period.
The food offering to the Goddess Durga, known as bhog, has fish and meat dishes. The most delicious fare is placed before the goddess as she is considered a part of the family, in fact, the visiting daughter.
That is why a large section of the populace in the state condemned Bageshwar Baba, a priest from Madhya Pradesh, who fired broadsides at Bengalis having non-vegetarian food during the Durga Puja days. However, the brickbat has come from the Bengal init of BJP as well. Several BJP leaders, including former state party chief Tathagata Roy and the present incumbent Samik Bhattacharya, have categorically emphasised that they’d have non-vegetarian fare during the puja days, as is customary for the average Bengali.
As the verbal slugfest continues, Bangiya Sabdakosh, an authentic dictionary by Haricharan Bandopadhayay, states that Sarada, from whom Saradotsav derived its name, and Durga are the same. Apparently, it clears the coast for the Left political outfits setting up ‘Saradotsav’ books stalls, but the Chief Minister has not still budged.
Nor has the Left, which feels that the chief minister is scared of books, which encourage critical thinking in readers, and thus voters. Party book stalls would be there during the festival days, Sujan Chakraborty, member of CPI(M) central committee, has stated.
Underscoring Chakraborty’s contention, CPI(M)’s secretary for West Bengal unit, Md Salim said that the chief minister’s comment is a reminder of how the fascists in Germany and Italy went on a book-burning rampage in the build-up to the Second World War. Moreover, Chakraborty also trained his critical guns at Trinamool Congress activists, who had allegedly indulged in similar vandalism during the reign of former CM Mamata Banerjee, he added.
Meanwhile, one of the organisers of a big community puja in south Kolkata requesting anonymity said that it would be difficult to allow “party book stalls” to be set up, if they flout the chief minister’s instructions. The occasion is too important to be disrupted over a minor matter like setting up of book stalls with one term or another, he felt.
With everyone looking forward to the pujas, the last thing one seeks is an ideological fracas marring the festivities, which light up the not-too-easy lives of the people of the state only once a year. (IPA Service)
