The latest face-off between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal is over Durga Puja.
On Monday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that puja committees should not come under the income tax radar. She was reacting to questions on the Durga Puja Committees Forum getting income tax notice.
“When it’s election time, they do Hindu-Muslim, and now they are doing this, but a festival is a festival,” she said at the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna, answering a question. Banerjee justified the government’s grant of Rs 10,000 each to the clubs organising puja as a social commitment. Last year, 3,000 Durga Puja committees in Kolkata and 25,000 from elsewhere in Bengal got a grant of Rs 10,000 each.
She said puja organisers do Durga Puja on the basis of subscription from people and from advertisements. “I condemn this attitude of bringing them under income tax radar. Puja is a community programme,” she said. The Bengal CM added that the Pujas were a huge attraction for people outside the state as well and a number of foreigners attended the programme organised by the state government after Dashami that leads up to idol immersion. Banerjee said that Durga Puja was a festival for people of all religions, and not just for Hindus.
BJP leaders in the state have been trying to get involved in Durga Puja, especially in the bigger ones this time. This has always been a way of politicians and political parties for reaching out to a large number of people. Even before coming to power, a number of senior Trinamool Congress leaders have been organisers of Durga Puja in their locality. A number of Trinamool Congress ministers are organisers of Durga Pujas – these crowd-pullers have also made the leaders popular in the area.
This time however, since winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state, BJP leaders are looking at gaining more power and control over areas through their involvement in the pujas. Already, there are talks that several BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, might inaugurate some Durga Pujas in the state.
