Durga Puja posters have sparked controversy in Kolkata and Siliguri in North Bengal. In an area on the outskirts of Kolkata, posters advertising a biryani shop on GT Road featured an image of goddess Durga alongside images of eggs, chicken and fish, inviting people to visit the shop and relish biryani during Durga Puja.
On Saturday night, these posters were torn down after local BJP supporters protested and a local BJP MLA intervened and filed a police complaint. The shop owner was asked to apologise for putting up the posters and subsequently remove them.
In another incident in the Dum Dum area in North 24 Parganas district, locals protested against biryani shop owners for using images of goddess Durga in advertisements to attract customers.
“Sanatani Hindus do not eat non-vegetarian food during Navratri, yet this is being deliberately promoted, encouraging people to eat what we don't, which is biryani. The focus of shop owners is on increasing biryani sales. This is wrong,” said BJP leader Rakesh Singh, who believes such practices are disrespectful to the Hindu faith.
Singh acknowledged that Bengalis eat non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja and said he had no objection to it. However, he argued that using images of goddess Durga in advertisements amounted to promoting non-vegetarian food through religious imagery.
In Siliguri, around 125 posters have been put up by the Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM) in several areas, conveying various social messages. Some of these messages urge people to say no to drugs, emphasise that all Hindus are brothers, and encourage young people in the Hindu community to work together for the welfare of others.
The HJM maintains that its appeal to illegal hawkers, who were removed from their places of business in recent months, to return to work in Siliguri rather than move elsewhere, has no religious connotations.
Some of the posters also encourage Hindu shop owners to open mutton shops, giving Hindu customers more opportunities to purchase meat from shops run by members of their community.
“Earlier, there were a lot of Hindus who ran mutton shops. However, many of them no longer sell mutton. We are encouraging them to set up mutton shops. Hindus also offer animal sacrifices. Many Hindus do not buy mutton from other shops. Hence, we are asking Hindus to come forward and resume selling mutton so that other Hindus feel comfortable buying meat from their shops,” said Sujit Bose, a member of the Hindu Jagaran Manch in Siliguri.
Bose said the organisation had not made any reference to other religious communities or called for a boycott of Muslim-owned mutton shops.
“We are not issuing a fatwa or diktat. We are just appealing to people so that Hindu hawkers who have lost their jobs can find employment,” Bose explained.
According to Bose, the messages are social in nature and seek to promote Hindu brotherhood. He maintained that the organisation has been spreading social messages for the past year and that the posters are part of its ongoing efforts.
Meanwhile, the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Left Front have questioned what they describe as the divisive nature of these poster campaigns, arguing that Durga Puja is a festival that symbolises inclusivity.
