Kolkata: Breaking his silence on the controversy around Dhirendra Krishna Garg alias Bageshwar Baba and the consequent protests across the state, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday directed Kolkata Police commissioner Ajay Nand to identify and arrest those who burnt the godman’s photographs outside Bhowanipore Police Station.“I saw a number of people burning his photographs outside Bhowanipore Police Station. I am directing the CP that these people need to be arrested. This will not be tolerated in this state. You have done enough,” Adhikari said in the Assembly. “A saint came to Liluah, he spoke like a saint about nationalism, Akhand Bharat and culture. Those who want to accept will accept, and those who do not want will not. He did not impose it on anyone.”During a Hanumant Katha event at Liluah in Howrah on Saturday, the self-styled godman’s remark on Bengalis having non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja started off a political controversy. On Tuesday, members of the state Congress lodged a complaint against him at the Bhowanipore Police Station for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Bengalis and burnt his photos in protest.Apart from the complaint by the state Congress, multiple complaints have since been lodged at Kolkata and Howrah police stations against Garg. While a section of the opposition claimed his remarks were an “attack on Bengali culture”, Adhikari issued clear instructions that those who burnt his photos should be arrested immediately.Warning political opponents against “appeasement politics”, the CM said, “Think five times before insulting the saffron colour or insulting the society of saints and monks. Appeasement politics has gone on in this state for many years, now it will be no more.”Bageshwar Baba, during his interaction at the Liluah event, urged residents to refrain from consuming and selling non-vegetarian food near puja pandals and idols during Durga Puja, which coincided with Navaratri. He went on to call those eating non-vegetarian food during religious festivals “pakhandi” and urged Hindus to boycott such practices. As protests broke out against those remarks, state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya rejected Garg’s appeal and said no one from outside Bengal could come and dictate such things to the people here.Even state urban development and municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul had said, “What Bageshwar Baba has said may apply to non-Bengali states in India, where people generally eat vegetarian food as they observe Navratri. But he does not know that in Bengal, people wait for Durga Puja, when they can enjoy good food, such as mutton, hilsa and prawn.”
