A fresh political and cultural controversy has erupted in West Bengal after Bageshwar Dham head priest Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popularly known as Bageshwar Baba, urged people in the state to avoid non-vegetarian food during Navratri and Durga Puja. His remarks, made at an event in Liluah, Howrah, have triggered criticism from opposition parties and prompted the West Bengal Congress to lodge a police complaint in Kolkata.
The complaint was filed at Bhowanipore Police Station on Tuesday by South District President of Congress, Pradip Prasad, which sought “immediate administrative action” and registration of an FIR, along with necessary arrests.
“Those who speak the language and belong to our state are all Bengalees or Bangalis as there is no such division. He has uttered vile sentences and preached what to eat and what not to eat during Durga Puja,” the complaint read, adding that the comments were “unruly, which are dangerous in nature, deeply hurting the sentiments of the Bengali people in our state.”
The controversy began on Sunday, September 6, when Shastri addressed a gathering in Liluah. Referring to the practice of consuming fish and meat around Durga Puja pandals, he criticised the tradition and appealed to Hindus in Kolkata to oppose it. “In Bengal, during Navratri non-vegetarian food is consumed behind Durga Puja pandals. Dirty food is cooked. This Navratri the Hindus from Kolkata should wake up and boycott such people. Those who consume non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja are impious,” Dhirendra Shastri had said.
Shashtri went forward to label consumers of non-veg food as “pakhandis”, or hypocrites. He also urged people to “boycott” such practices.
His comments quickly drew backlash in Bengal, where fish and meat form a significant part of traditional cuisine and where animal sacrifice and non-vegetarian offerings are associated with some Shakta religious traditions. The remarks also became politically sensitive because Shastri had been hosted by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at a dinner at the state-run Soujanya auditorium in Kolkata during his first ever visit to Bengal. The dinner was attended by ministers from the state government.
By Monday, the BJP’s Bengal leadership moved to distance itself from Shastri’s comments. West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the religious leader had expressed his personal views and had no authority to decide what Bengalis should eat. “He comes from a different world. He has no right to decide what the people of Bengal will eat and what not,” Bhattacharya said.
Bhattacharya also invoked Bengali religious and cultural traditions to reject the suggestion of a blanket vegetarian prescription during Durga Puja. “How can Bengalis not have fish and meat?” he said, referring to Swami Vivekananda and the practice of offering goat meat to Goddess Kali. He stressed that the BJP would not issue any “diktat” on what people should eat or wear.
Other BJP leaders also sought to play down the controversy. State Panchayat Minister Dilip Ghosh said religious figures could express their own views on vegetarianism, but people should remain free to make their own dietary choices. “Bengal has a tradition of goat sacrifice during Durga Puja and that is consumed as prasad,” Ghosh said, adding that eating goat meat was “not a matter of controversy.”
