This time, Eid celebrations will be different in West Bengal, with the mass congregation taking place at the Brigade Parade Ground, instead of Red Road, where around three lakh people gather to offer namaz twice a year.
The new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has prohibited offering prayers on roads by blocking the traffic, which is why Friday prayers and the Eid namaz are taking place on at the Brigade Parade Ground and within mosques.
Preparations have been made on the ground to accommodate the huge turnout.
“If we didn’t get permission on Red Road, we got permission on Brigade Parade Ground, which is a bigger space—there is no problem. The place has changed but it is an open space,” said Shafique Qazmi, the shahi imam of Nakhoda Masjid, while agreeing that the country and the Muslim community needed to progress.
“People should offer sacrifice responsibly. There is no need to worry. Offer sacrifice responsibly, offer namaz responsibly,” he added.
Others offering namaz this year at the Brigade Parade Ground were also of the same opinion.
“If the roads are a hinderance, if the sacrifice of a big animal hurts the sentiments of our fellow brothers, then religiously we should do it. It is not mandatory we sacrifice a cow,” said Imran Zaki from Kolkata.
“We need to build bridges, not wars. We have always been part of a shared future.”
The permission to use the Brigade Parade Ground was given by the Army and approved by the Kolkata police after a request from the Calcutta Khilafat Committee, which is the organisation that officially sought permission to offer namaz at both locations—both of which are under their jurisdiction.
The BJP's new diktat has been followed over the last few weeks, and on Eid, several people flocking to the mosque for prayers will pray in two batches.
The government also invoked the 1950 Animal Slaughter Act, where cows and buffaloes below the age of 14 could not be slaughtered.
A certificate has to be obtained by the panchayat veterinary doctor that the animal is ailing and fit for slaughter. Slaughtering also cannot take place in public places and can only take place in municipal slaughterhouses.
“If there are restrictions on slaughtering one animal there is no problem,” noted the imam of Nakhoda Masjid.
In contrast, the former Left Front and Trinamool Congress (TMC) governments neither stopped prayers from being offered on roads, nor imposed restrictions on animal slaughter and restrictions in public places.