CM: People will give befitting reply to those who depicted Gandhiji as ‘asur’

Her remarks came in the wake of a Durga Puja organised by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha in Kolkata depicting the buffalo demon as a Gandhi lookalike. The move led to a controversy.

“It’s a matter of shame that they tried to malign Durga Puja by using the face of the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi as that of an asur. All of us respect Gandhiji,” Banerjee said while addressing a Bijoya Sammelani programme in Kolkata.

The CM lauded the police for apt handling of the situation and not allowing it to snowball into a major issue during the Durga Puja.

“People will give a befitting reply to those who tried to insult the father of the nation. They later changed it after the police intervened,” Banerjee said.

The organisers of the puja near Ruby Crossing in southeast Kolkata changed the appearance of the idol that looked like Gandhi following instructions from the police after a complaint was lodged. The West Bengal BJP unit had condemned the incident.

In an apparent jibe at the BJP, Mamata targeted the ruling party at the Centre and said, “Central agencies will twist your ear when you are not in power. Be ready.”

She said, “Do not think we will be afraid if you show us ‘Danda’. We are silent because of Durga Puja. No one wants any disturbance during Puja.”

Meanwhile, Tapash Chatterjee, TMC MLA from Rajarhat-Newtown, has claimed that he was not invited to another ‘Bijoya Sammelani’ event, that was also attended by Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday.

“Despite being an MLA, I didn’t know anything about the programme. Last year also, I was not even invited,” he claimed on Thursday. He added, “In our party, some are Babus and some are servants. We are somehow in the servant category. We will do all the work. We will fight for the party but those who criticised our party, jumped to another party and after the state Assembly election and again came back, they are now big leaders. They were invited but we were not.”