Subdued Hanuman Jayanti in West Bengal this year as state recovers from Ram Navami violence
The Kolkata Police said there will only be eight processions in the city, and they will not allow any rallies with arms or loudspeakers.
There will be far fewer Hanuman Jayanti processions on Saturday in Kolkata this year as a number of districts in West Bengal are still recovering from the violence that broke out during Ram Navami celebrations earlier this week. Organisers of rallies who got permission from the police had to submit in writing that they would organise “traditional” processions, and that participants would not carry weapons, The Times of India reported.
The police have appealed to devotees to visit Hanuman temples to mark the occasion. There will be only eight processions in Kolkata and not more than 20 in the Kolkata-Bidhannagar-Barrackpore belt, the newspaper reported.
“Under orders from Nabanna [the state secretariat], we have to be present at all these temples to ensure that unscrupulous people don’t spread rumours,” a senior police officer told The Times of India, adding that they had restricted the number of processions because there were limited security forces available.
A senior police officer told The Indian Express that more than a thousand personnel have been deployed across Kolkata, and that teams of police officers will patrol all the sensitive localities in the city. “Procession with arms, if any, will not be permitted,” the officer added. The police will also stop any procession with loudspeakers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said it will not organise any Hanuman Jayanti procession. “If anyone invites any party leader to any programme, they may attend, but as a party, we will not organise anything,” BJP General Secretary Sayantan Basu told The Indian Express.
While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad will also not hold any procession, the Hindutva group will organise an awareness programme on building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. “We have scheduled programmes to make people aware about the proposed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya,” said Sourish Mukherjee, VHP’s West Bengal media-in-charge. “The drive started on March 18 across the country and will continue till March 31. In Bengal, we will do this tomorrow [on Saturday], but it will be inside temples.”