Controversial Gandhi lookalike as Mahishasura covered up with wig after police intervention
On October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, a photo went viral, of his lookalike depicted as the demon king Mahishasura, being slayed by the goddess Durga, at a Durga Puja pandal near the Ruby Crossing in Kolkata. The puja has been organised by Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), a right-wing Hindutva outfit.
The photo had been tweeted by Alt News Senior Editor Indradeep Bhattacharyya. Later that same day, he deleted the post. The reason, he tweeted, was that the deputy commissioner in charge of the Cyber Cell of Kolkata Police had asked him to do it, saying the picture “might create tension amid the festivities”. He also said that the police had assured him that “they were looking into it”.
There was widespread condemnation of the depiction from netizens, which is believed to have precipitated the police action.
The bald head of the crude depiction of Gandhi has now been covered by a wig and a moustache has been added, to make the idol look like a proper Mahishasura.
Though Chandrachur Goswami, the working president of the Bengal wing of the party, told a media outlet that “the similarity to Gandhi was a coincidence”, few believe it.
And, as if to buttress the deliberate nature of the outfit’s act, Goswami claimed in the same breath that they put the wig only because “the police asked us to change it”. It is a well-known fact that Hindu Mahasabha is a strident opposer of Gandhi’s role in India’s freedom and supports Nathuram Godse’s act of assassinating him.
All parties, from across the political spectrum, in Bengal have strongly opposed this depiction. While Trinamool Congress said “it is an insult to the father of the nation”, the Bharatiya Janata Party said “we condemn this strongly”.
The Congress filed an FIR against ABHM, while CPI(M) urged “Kolkata Police and Mamata Banerjee to take serious cognisance of this matter and penalise the miscreants”.
Even Bangiya Parishad Hindu Mahasabha, another anti-Mahatma Gandhi right-wing party, which is Bengal-based, said it condemns the act. Sandip Mukherjee, its president, that his party too has differences with Mahatma Gandhi’s views but this is not the way to protest against them.
