Kolkata: Buoyed by the attention it received from the media for the asura depicted at its Durga puja pandal resembling Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu Mahasabha on Monday scaled up its attack on the ‘Father of the Nation’ and placed a rifle at the feet of the Hindu goddess.
Speaking to this correspondent on Sunday, the working president of the Bengal unit of the Hindu Mahasabha Chandrachur Goswami said, “We want Gandhi-mukt India. We don’t consider him the father of the nation. He did immense harm to the country.”
Goswami, who is also president of the puja organising committee, held Gandhi responsible for the deaths of Netaji and Bhagat Singh and also the death of “30 lakh people during the Partition”.
The Durga Puja, organised by the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha near the Ruby Hospital on the EM Bypass, created a huge ruckus in Kolkata on Sunday evening after it was noticed that the ‘Asura’ in the idol resembled Mahatma Gandhi. Incidentally, Sunday was Gandhi’s birth anniversary as well.
According to the Hindu mythological text ‘Markandeya Purana’, ‘Asura’, the principal adversary of the gods, had waged a war against divinity. He was eventually slayed with a trident by Durga, the mother goddess, who rode on a lion. She is hence called ‘Mahishasuramardini’, or the slayer of the buffalo demon.
Typically, the idol that is worshipped during Durga Puja has ‘Mahishashura’ near the deity’s feet, stabbed by a trident held by Durga. He is usually shown as a muscular man with wavy hair and a handlebar moustache.
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