Bengal BJP Chief Rejects Bageshwar Baba’s ‘No Non-Veg’ Appeal: ‘How Can Bengalis Not Have Fish and Meat?’

West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Monday criticised religious leader Bageshwar Baba’s appeal urging people in the state to adopt vegetarianism during Navratri and Durga Puja, saying Bengalis cannot be expected to give up fish and meat.

“How can Bengalis not have fish and meat? Even Swami Vivekananda said Ma Kali will have mutton as an offering. It is dangerous if someone tries to rise above Vivekananda. This is his personal opinion,” Bhattacharya said, without naming Dhirendra Krishna Garg, popularly known as Bageshwar Baba.

The 30-year-old religious leader and chief priest of Bageshwar Dham was in West Bengal for a three-day Hanumant Katha programme in Howrah’s Liluah. On Saturday, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari hosted a dinner for him at Soujanya, a state auditorium, which was attended by several cabinet ministers and ministers of state.

At the Liluah event on Sunday, Bageshwar Baba objected to the consumption of non-vegetarian food near Durga Puja pandals during Navratri. He urged Hindus to “wake up” and remove those consuming such food, calling them “not pious” and “sacrilegious”.

His remarks sparked criticism among sections of Bengali Hindus and went viral on social media. The controversy came days after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on August 26, called for non-vegetarian food to be kept away from Durga Puja pandals.

Bhattacharya said people in West Bengal should be free to decide what they eat and wear.

“We have nothing to say on what people will eat and wear in West Bengal. Bengalis will do what they are used to. Those who want to wear dhoti will do so, while those who prefer lungi will wear lungi. How can Bengalis not have fish?” he said.

He added that while there was nothing wrong with an individual advocating vegetarianism, neither a religious leader nor a political party should dictate people’s dietary choices.

The issue has particular political significance for the BJP in West Bengal. During the election campaign earlier this year, BJP leaders had publicly eaten or campaigned with fish to counter the Trinamool Congress’s claim that Bengalis would be forced to become vegetarian if the BJP came to power.

Social media users also criticised Bageshwar Baba’s remarks. Journalist and author Abhijit Majumdar said West Bengal had its own “assertive Hindutva” tradition and described the appeal against non-vegetarian food near Durga Puja pandals as “ill-informed” and “unwarranted”.

Meanwhile, a separate controversy erupted on Monday after a Kolkata Police digital poster for Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s meeting with community Durga Puja organisers showed Goddess Durga with 11 hands instead of the traditional 10.

TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh mocked the error, saying the BJP’s promised changes in Bengal had “not spared even Ma Durga”.

Bhattacharya said the mistake was made by the advertising agency responsible for designing the poster and would be corrected.