Following a controversy over his meat diktat in West Bengal, Bageshwar Dham head priest Dhirendra Shastri aka Bageshwar Baba on Thursday issued a clarification and said his remarks were taken out of the context and he only objected to consuming non-vegetarian food near a pandal during Durga Puja celebrations.
Shastri said no one should comment on the food habits and the clothes a person wear, while maintaining that this meat diktat was more about maintaining purity near the vicinity of the pandal during Durga Puja. He underlined that he has never commented on anyone's food habit and will never do it.
"I have never commented on anyone's food habits and the clothes they wear. Talking about Durga Puja, I just said that purity should be maintained near the vicinity of the Goddess. Meat consumption should not take place near the pandal. Those who want to eat, they should do it outside the pandal. We cannot comment on anyone's food habit. As a religious leader, I only spoke against the 'bali pratha'," Shastri clarified.
Shastri had called for giving up the practice of consuming meat, while describing those who consume non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja as 'pakhandis' (heretics). His remarks stirred a massive controversy, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distancing itself and saying that no religious leader should prescribing on what people must eat or wear.
Many of party leaders, including BJP's state unit chief Samik Bhattacharya and West Bengal's Panchayats and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh, said the consumption of non-vegetarian food is not a matter of controversy and reminding that goat sacrifice during Durga Puja has been a tradition of West Bengal.
The Congress also criticised Shastri over his diktat, with its state unit lodging a complaint against him for hurting religious sentiments of the state. The complaint was filed at the Bhawanipore and Nimtala police stations in Kolkata, by Congress' South Kolkata District and North Kolkata District units.
"Such remarks, if found to have been made as reported, are deeply hurtful to the sentiments of the Bengali people and are particularly objectionable when made in relation to Durga Puja, a festival that holds immense cultural, social and religious significance in West Bengal," North Kolkata District Congress Committee president Tarak Pal said in the complaint.
ALSO READ:
'Carried TVs, printers out': TMC's Kolkata office attacked; Abhishek blames BJP | VIDEO
