PIL in Calcutta HC against Mahua Moitra's Goddess Kali comments

KOLKATA: A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday against the recent comments by Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member, Mahua Moitra associating Goddess Kali with alcohol and meat.

In the PIL filed before the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, the petitioner, the state BJP’s minority cell, claimed that although her Trinamool Congress has distanced itself from the comments by its MP, no action was taken against her on this count.

The petitioner also pointed out that while the police administration in West Bengal became active against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma over the latter’s controversial comments on the Prophet, the same police administration remained silent about Moitra despite FIRs were filed against her for her controversial comments about Goddess Kali.

The petitioner’s counsel, Tanmay Basu, argued that it is unfortunate that Moitra, who is a Lok Sabha member, got away even after making such controversial comments that had hurt the sentiments of the millions of Goddess Kali worshippers. “It is even more unfortunate that the state administration did not take any action against her despite such derogatory comments,” he argued.

On the other hand, Moitra’s counsel, Sounak Mitra argued that only a portion of his client’s comments on this count had been highlighted to create controversy over the issue. “This petition is not admissible,” he said.

Appearing for the state government, state Advocate General S.N. Mukhopadhyay said that Moitra did not make this comment with any intention to hurt anyone’s sentiment and hence, there was no need to take any action against her.

At this, Basu said that it is unfortunate that the Advocate General, despite representing the state government, was actually holding the brief in favour of Moitra.

The division bench after hearing all the parties reserved its judgement for the day.

Moitra, at a public programme recently, referred to some Tantrik rituals and said that Goddess Kali accepts meat and alcohol as bhoga. Her comments created a furore and even her own party described the statement as personal of Moitra. But she had stuck to her stand.