How BJP is reshaping Bengal’s Durga Puja in its first year in power

The BJP government is trying to put its stamp on West Bengal’s Durga Puja legacy in its first year in power, lining up a slew of government-backed initiatives, including a mega Mahalaya launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Eden Gardens and an international Puja preview by the Adani Group for diplomats, artists and other foreign guests.

The moves come as the government seeks to establish its own ties with thousands of puja committees across the state, a network that the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government had assiduously cultivated through grants, concessions, ministerial patronage and the annual Red Road carnival.

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The BJP government has retained financial assistance for puja committees but scrapped the carnival, introduced by the TMC government in 2016, while putting greater emphasis on Mahalaya, traditional rituals and the Hindu religious character of the festival.

Mahalaya takes centre stage

The Mahalaya programme on October 10 is planned as the biggest state-sponsored event marking the beginning of Devi Paksha, the 15-day lunar fortnight in the Hindu calendar that precedes Durga Puja and is traditionally associated in Bengal with Goddess Durga’s annual visit to her maternal home.

For the first time, the state government is organising a special cultural programme to mark Mahalaya, which traditionally heralds the countdown to Durga Puja.

PM Modi will attend the programme at Eden Gardens, where vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, composer Shantanu Moitra, playback singer Shaan and folk band Dohar are scheduled to perform. Around 15,000 dhakis, the traditional drummers who are an integral part of Durga Puja celebrations, will also take part.

The programme will include folk and cultural performances from different parts of Bengal, along with a drone show and large-scale visual displays.

‘Mahalaya’ goes beyond Kolkata

The government is also planning Mahalaya programmes outside Kolkata, including in Siliguri, Baharampur, Durgapur, Digha, Bishnupur, Malda and Nandigram. The event is being seen as the BJP government’s mega showpiece around the festival, much as the puja carnival was under the previous TMC government.

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The Eden Gardens event is expected to be used for the virtual inauguration of thousands of puja celebrations across the state, giving the BJP government a single, highly visible launch for its first Durga Puja in office.

End of the road for carnival

Under Mamata Banerjee, the state government’s most prominent public programme around the festival used to be the carnival, in which selected puja committees participated in a colourful procession before immersion.

The event, which attracted large crowds, has now been scrapped. The BJP government has instead decided that the official state celebration will begin with Mahalaya.

The administration has also asked puja committees not to hold inaugurations before Mahalaya and has stressed that the festival should follow traditional religious practices.

The chief minister has said he too will not inaugurate any Puja before Mahalaya.

Financial support continues

The BJP government, however, has continued the system of financial support for puja committees introduced during Mamata Banerjee’s administration.

It has fixed this year’s grant at Rs 1 lakh and appealed to large and financially strong committees to give up the assistance so that it can be directed towards smaller organisers.

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Mamata had begun giving grants to Puja committees in 2018, initially providing Rs 10,000 each to around 28,000 committees. The amount was subsequently increased several times, reaching Rs 1.10 lakh last year, while the number of beneficiaries crossed 40,000. The government also offered concessions on electricity bills and other charges.

The grants were only a part of Mamata’s effort to establish a political relationship with the puja network.

A new political presence

She personally inaugurated a large number of pujas every year, while ministers and TMC leaders were closely associated with prominent puja committees. The government also increasingly used puja events to publicise its welfare schemes and other initiatives.

The BJP is now beginning to enter some of these spaces following its electoral victory.

The shift is visible in committees such as Suruchi Sangha, which was closely associated with former minister Aroop Biswas. BJP MLA Sourav Sikdar has taken a prominent position in the committee this year. There are also attempts to create a wider network of puja organisers associated with BJP leaders.

Adani Group’s entry

The Adani Group’s entry is another significant initiative of the BJP government and is being seen as a push for greater corporate participation in Durga Puja under its rule.

On Thursday (September 24), the state government signed two MoUs with Adani Enterprises, one relating to the restoration and preservation of Writers’ Buildings and the other covering cultural initiatives connected with Durga Puja and Bengal’s artistic heritage.

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Under the arrangement, the Adani Group will organise its first Durga Puja Preview Tour from October 10 to 12. Selected guests, including diplomats, foreign visitors, artists, academics and corporate representatives, will be taken on a curated tour of selected puja venues in Kolkata before the festival opens to the main crowds.

Taking Bengal's Puja global

The visits will be held from 6 pm to around 4 am and entry will be managed through invitations and QR-based registration.

“The preview is expected to cover eight to 10 pujas. The objective is to present Bengal’s puja, its artists, artisans and traditional crafts to an international audience. The Adani Foundation is also expected to support some puja committees and local businesses linked to the festival,” said an official privy to the initiative.

Durga Puja has already become one of Bengal’s biggest economic and cultural events. A British Council study commissioned by the state government had estimated the creative economy linked to the festival at more than Rs 32,000 crore in 2019. More recent estimates have put the wider puja economy at around Rs 65,000 crore.

Debate over Puja identity

The BJP’s puja outreach comes amid a debate over whether the public character of Bengal’s Durga Puja is changing. The controversy over vegetarian and non-vegetarian food during the festival, along with calls for greater emphasis on Sanatan traditions, has led critics to allege that attempts are being made to give the festival a more explicitly Hindu identity.

The BJP leadership in Bengal, however, has not uniformly endorsed such restrictions. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has himself defended the Bengali practice of fish as prasad, while state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has said that nobody should dictate what Bengalis eat.