Calcutta HC suggests change of ‘puja’ for Left literature

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Monday verbally suggested that the CPM could set up its bookstalls during Kali Puja instead of Durga Puja. It was hearing a petition over the denial of permission for temporary stalls of Marxists and progressive literary works during Durga Puja in Naihati and Bongaon in North 24-Parganas.

The petitioners told the court that they had been putting up bookstalls at the two locations during the Durga Puja festivities for the past five decades. Advocate Shamim Ahmed, representing the petitioners, argued that the authorities had refused permission this year, citing “a direction from higher authorities”.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, while hearing the plea in the High Court on Monday, questioned whether the petitioners’ long-standing practice gave them an automatic right to set up the stalls. The judge verbally proposed that they could instead install the bookstalls during Kali Puja, scheduled to take place about a fortnight later. When Ahmed requested the matter be released from his court, Justice Bhattacharyya said he would consider that on Tuesday.

The CPM’s cultural wings traditionally set up bookstalls near pandals across West Bengal during Durga Puja. While in speaking in the Assembly on September 10, Suvendu had asked Durga Puja committees across the state not to allow the CPM bookstalls outside pandals if the party refers to the festival as ‘Sharodotsav’ instead of ‘Durga Puja’, saying the term minimises its religious character.

Suvendu had accused sections of the Left of selectively targeting ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and the saffron colour, and urged puja committees to prevent such bookstalls from operating. The CPM and its affiliates set up bookstalls near Durga Puja pandals every year, selling Marxist and progressive literature, party publications and other books, while using the festival to reach out to people.

In 1954, the first such CPM-associated book stall was set up in Park Circus on the initiative of veteran Communist leader Muzaffar Ahmed. The practice became particularly significant as party workers and local leaders were generally discouraged from directly participating in religious events.

After the Left Front’s defeat in 2011, such red-cloth stalls became less common during the previous TMC regime, though they continue to be organised at select locations. The HC’s suggestions comes at a time when the CPM leadership plans to put up around 110 stalls in Kolkata, triggering a confrontation with the ruling BJP.

Selectively targeting ‘Sanatan Dharma’, says CM

Suvendu had accused sections of the Left of selectively targeting ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and the saffron colour, and urged puja committees to prevent such bookstalls from operating. The CPM sets up bookstalls near Durga Puja pandals every year, selling progressive literature.

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