Kolkata: The “beef festival” organised by a CPI-M backed social organisation in Kolkata had to be called off at the last moment due to pressure from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
According to the organisers — Subhas Chakrabarty Foundation and Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilani — the festival was to be held at the Muslim Institute and they were denied permission at the last moment without being given any valid reason.
“People who run the institute have close links with the TMC and since it doesn’t want to displease the BJP led central government, they forced the institute to withdraw permission at the last moment,” CPM leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said.
The organisers have vowed to hold the festival in the city soon and are all set for a court battle with the authorities since the reason cited for denying permission to hold the event — that the details of the programme and the credentials of the Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilani were not submitted to it — was flimsy according to them.
However, sources within the TMC claim that the main objective of the organisers was to try to revive the CPI-M’s vote base within the minority community and hence the party was deploying such tricks ahead of the crucial municipal elections in the state.
“If they had been really so sincere about their opposition of the ban on beef they should have done it in Maharashtra to mark their protest. But they are confined to Kerala and Bengal for vote bank politics,” a TMC insider said.
Earlier, Left unions and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI-M, had announced plans to organising a nationwide “beef festival” to protest against the law banning the consumption or sale of beef in Maharashtra.
“The whole thing is undemocratic as governments cannot decide on the culinary habits of the people. The ban has been on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked against the pink revolution in his election campaigns.
Now the home minister Rajnath Singh has pronounced that he wants an all-India ban,” M.B. Rajesh DYFI national president and Lok Sabha member (lower house of parliament) told Gulf News over the phone.
“We will soon move court, as there is historical evidence to prove ancient Hindus ate beef and that there is no religious significance associated with beef,” Rajesh said, ruling out the possibility of such a festival in Maharashtra.
