Kolkata, Sep 13 (IANS) West Bengal Panchayat Affairs and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh said on Sunday that despite being a politician himself, he feels that the Durga Puja inaugurations should be done by social, academic and intellectual achievers rather than politicians.
Speaking to the media, Ghosh claimed that the state leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has rightly advised party leaders to avoid the Trinamool Congress pattern of getting overinvolved in the affairs of Durga Puja committees and rather leave the affairs to the committee members.
He also said he will not go to the inauguration events of any community’s Durga Puja, especially those which are connected with a political personality.
Ghosh, the BJP’s former national vice-president and former state president of the party in West Bengal, said he personally feels that it is always better that the Durga Pujas are inaugurated by social, academic and intellectual achievers, rather than political personalities.
“The Padma awardees, I think, would be the best persons to inaugurate Durga Pujas. Achievers without any particular political loyalty would be the best persons to inaugurate a Puja. At the same time, acclaimed religious personalities like monks could also be involved in the inauguration process. At the same time, there are many unknown and unsung personalities who are working relentlessly in remote areas for public welfare. The puja committees could consider them by bringing them into the limelight by getting their pujas inaugurated by them, since they are the real examples to the society,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh also advocated for involving acclaimed sports personalities in the puja inauguration.
During the previous Trinamool Congress regime, leaders of the ruling dispensation were often accused of monopolising the different community Durga Puja committees, with heavyweight members in the previous cabinet controlling many puja committees at the same time.
But after the change of regime following the Assembly elections, BJP’s state president and the party’s Rajya Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya, had given clear instructions to party leaders, elected representatives and ministers to refrain from events of different puja committees.
He also advised elected representatives of the BJP to limit their associations with puja committees within their respective areas.
–IANS
src/dpb
