Biswabrata Goswami
KRISHNAGAR, 6 JULY: Amidst the widespread criticism over Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s remarks on Goddess Kaali, a Supreme Court advocate, Bijan Ghosh has lodged a FIR against her with Kotwali police station in Nadia, today.
In his written complaint, Mr Ghosh claimed that Ms Moitra has made offensive statements which hurt religious feelings and sentiment. “She committed cognizable offences by making such statement and she did so most deliberately with a definite motive to derive political dividend by indirect appeasement as her constituency (Krishnagar-12) have nearly 45% Muslim vote. This is the most dangerous and deplorable political practice against constitutional morality and the core of People’s representation while treating Hindu god and goddess as a punching bag,” Mr Ghosh said.
Before this complaint, a BJP leader Jiten Chatterjee lodged a police complaint with Andal police station in Durgapur against Ms Moitra following which Ms Moitra tweeted saying, “Bring it on BJP! Am a Kali worshipper. I am not afraid of anything. Not your ignoramuses. Not your goons. Not your police. And most certainly not your trolls. Truth doesn’t need back up forces.”
This apart, a group of Kaali devotees and Hindus took out a protest rally and staged a protest demonstration at Post Office Morh in Krishnagar, this afternoon. They demanded immediate arrest of Moitra for her offensive statement on Goddess Kaali.
Meanwhile, a day after the Trinamul Congress distanced itself from her comments on Goddess Kaali, Ms Moitra today unfollowed its official Twitter handle. According to her official Twitter handle, Ms Moitra now only follows TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Moitra was not available for comment.
The TMC on Tuesday had condemned the remarks and said they were made by the MP in “her personal capacity” and were “not endorsed by the party”.
Ms Moitra had made her remarks during the India Today Conclave East held in Kolkata which triggered widespread criticism.
She made the remarks while responding to a question on the controversy over a film poster showing a woman dressed as Goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette. Canada-based filmmaker Leena Manimekalai has come under fire after the poster of her film surfaced on social media, with police complaints being filed against her in Delhi and Lucknow on Tuesday.
Ms Moitra said, “You have the freedom to imagine your goddess. To me, Kaali is a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess. If you go to Bhutan or Sikkim, for example, when they do puja, they give whisky to their god. Now, if you go to Uttar Pradesh and say that you give whisky to your god as prasad, they will say that is blasphemous.”
Later, Ms Moitra clarified that she had spoken about her personal conceptualization of the goddess and had NEVER backed any film or poster or mentioned the word smoking.
Tags: #MahuaMoitra #Kaali #BijanGhsoh #TMC #Krishnagar #KotwaliPoliceStation
