With elections just about eight months away the Kolkata Durga pujas have been soaked in political themes this year round. Thoughts and themes of a community Durga puja are often reflected through pandal architecture, craft works etc.
Take for instance the Durga puja organised at Raja Santosh Mitra Square in North Kolkata. This year the organisers have projected patriotism through Operation Sindoor as the main theme of the puja. This, through a light and sound show of Pahalgam attack and the Indian retaliation drawing mammoth crowds from all over the districts.
With high profile State BJP leader Sajal Ghosh being the main organiser of this puja, the theme itself has provoked controversy with the Kolkata Police writing letters to the organisers about the crowd that it has been drawing and that there is a chance of stampede.
“They have even issued notice to the lighting company which is from Rajasthan asking for its licence number and even GST number. The police at the behest of the TMC Government are trying to stop this show. But I must warn them that if they do so then I will stop the Puja itself and close the pandal and rest will be taken care of by the people,” Ghosh who had last time created a replica of the Ayodhya Ram Temple said.
Down South at Suruchi Sangha in up market New Alipore area, the organisers have put up a splendid replica of the Cellular Jail of Andaman and Nicobar depicting and projecting the contribution of the jailed freedom fighters. The main organiser of the puja is powerful Bengal Minister Arup Biswas.
Incidentally, the reference of Cellular Jail came in some of recent speeches of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who while slamming the BJP-ruled States for allegedly harassing the migrant workers from Bengal “just because they speak Bengali language,” had said that “90 per cent of prisoners at Andaman Jail were Bengalis followed by those from Punjab making it evident that ancestors of those who are being mistreated today had played a key role in India’s freedom struggle.”
Similarly at Chaltabagan Sarbojonin, Dum Dum Road Hanuman Mandir Jayashree Club, and some other places the pujas focus on the alleged harassment faced by the Bengali migrant workers. The theme of Caltabagan which has entered its 81st year this year, is Ami Banglay Bolchhi or “I am speaking in Bengali.”
Cut to Murshidabad: here however a Durga Puja committee has demonised a President of a foreign country for imposing penal tariff on India. The Khagra Swashan Ghat (crematorium ground) Durga Puja Committee at Behrampore created the idol of Mahishasura after this “villain of a President for his hostile approach against India.”
However, there are some organisers who have stuck to the concept of “Unity” at a time when the country looks divided along religious or caste lines as never before. The Putiary Club Sarbojanin in South Kolkata has been conveying a powerful message with the theme ‘Dayboddho’, imnplying responsibility.
“We have tried to put forward a theme that makes the arrival of the Mother Goddess Durga coincide with peace, harmony and responsibility,” said one of the organisers.