Kolkata: CM Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday asked Durga Puja committees across Bengal not to allow CPM book stalls outside pandals if they use the term ‘Sharodotsav’ instead of ‘Durga Puja’, accusing the Left of attempting to dilute the festival’s religious identity.
Making a direct appeal to puja organisers to deny space to CPM-associated stalls using the term ‘Sharodotsav’, the CM said, “I would ask all Durga Puja committees that if the Communists write ‘Sharodotsav’ (autumn festival) instead of ‘Durga Puja’ at the book stalls they set up, they should not be allowed to operate.”
The practice dates to 1954, when the first such CPM-associated stall was set up at Park Circus on the initiative of veteran Communist leader Muzaffar Ahmed.
“This is the right time to pull out and cast away the seeds that the Communists have sown in this land that gave birth to ideas like that of Naxalism,” Adhikari said. “These are fascist attacks to provoke the Bajrangis who set fire to party offices at night and carry out vandalism on institution campuses,” he said. Questioning the CM’s authority to dictate what should be written on book-stall signboards, Salim said the govt should focus instead on education, health, industry, employment, commerce, price rise and civic amenities. Defending the term ‘Sharodotsav’, Salim said autumn festivals had historically been associated with agrarian societies across Asia and cited Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Sharodatsav’, ‘Poush Mela’, ‘Barshamangal’ and ‘Basanta Utsav’. The court will decide what the difference is between ‘Sharodotsav’ and ‘Durga Puja’,” Sarkar said. Criticising the CM for framing the issue as a confrontation with an “enemy”, Sarkar said, “ “I think it would be better if the CM did not make such statements.
CPM and its affiliates have traditionally put up book stalls near Durga Puja pandals, selling Marxist literature, party publications and other books. “Whether the statement is legally valid is something he has to consider. I believe the court will have the final say. He is fighting by assuming an enemy camp. That does not behove a chief minister,” he added.