Bajrang Dal forces immersion of Ganesh idol on env awareness

Nagpur: An effort to create awareness about pollution in Ganga river caused trouble for a Ganesh mandal when right-wing groups strongly objected to the depiction of Lord Ganesh at the mandal.
A group of citizens in the city under the aegis of Rudra Ganeshotav Mandal had designed a special idol this year, which depicted Lord Ganesha as Lord Rudra (an avatar of Lord Shiva), holding a statue of river Ganga. On one side, an idol of a man was placed, depicting how humans are polluting Ganga, and a furious Lord Ganesh is trying to save it.
When Bajrang Dal activists came to know about it, they reached the mandal and asked the organizers to immediately immerse the statue. They claimed that depicting Lord Ganesh as Lord Rudra was disrespect to the former. Moreover, Lord Ganesh holding a woman in his hands was highly objectionable, they said.
While Jaripatka police provided protection to the mandal members, some police personnel allegedly asked the mandal to immerse the statue immediately. TOI tried to contact Jaripatka cops but they did not respond.
Rajkumar Sharma of Bajrang Dal told TOI they also had objection to Ganga being depicted as an inappropriately dressed woman. “How can Lord Rudra, an avatar of Lord Shiva, be depicted as Lord Ganesh. This is mockery of Hindu religion. We took objection because our sentiments were deeply hurt.”
In fact, the activists had been objecting to the statue right from the beginning. “They had reached the house of the idol maker two to three days ago and threatened him with swords. They told him that they would not allow the statue to leave his house for the mandal venue, but we somehow managed to transport it,” said one of the organizers.
After the statue was consecrated, the Bajrang Dal activists lodged a complaint with Jaripatka police. The cops allegedly summoned the organizers every day to the police station. “Though the police gave us protection, they sided with the right-wingers. Eventually, the cops told us to fall in line and immerse the idol. We removed the idol at midnight on September 3 and immersed it in the wee hours of September 4,” said the organizer.
Another organizer lamented that right-wing organizations did not understand the freedom of expression. “We had no intention of mocking Hindu religion. We only wanted to create awareness about pollution. Many Ganesh idols in the city are depicted as policeman etc every year, but Bajrang Dal never objects to it,” he said.
Not wishing to create anymore controversy, the mandal members installed a statue of Bahubali Ganesh instead.