Row erupts over cancelling booking for Bhagwat's event

A row was erupted on Tuesday after a state-run auditorium in Kolkata cancelled the booking for an event which was to be addressed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on October 3, a move denounced by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh as an act of "vengeance" but defended by the Mamata Banerjee government.

The development set off a slugfest, with the RSS' official twitter handle alleging that it was done to "appease jihadi elements", but the Trinamoll Congress government said the booking was cancelled over "safety and security reasons" as the auditorium would be under renovation and repair around that time.

"To take vengeance on RSS, Mamata cancelled event of Sister Nivedita Mission Trust, which is working among poor & destitute women," the RSS tweeted quoting Manmohan Vaidya, its chief of publicity.

"Mamata's knee-jerk responses r 2 appease #Jihadi elements who have infiltrated the state, upon which she built her political base," said another tweet.

A spokesman for the Sister Nivedita 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations Committee, which had booked Mahajati Sadan for the programme, claimed that the auditorium authorities had accepted the booking in June.

But last week they first said that police permission was required for holding the event. When told that police permission had already been obtained, they said that renovation work will be undertaken in the auditorium during the time and the programme cannot take place there, said Rantidev Sengupta, general secretary of the committee.

The BJP leadership also came down heavily on the state government and alleged that an "undeclared Emergency" prevailed in the state.

"Earlier when Mohan Bhagwat was supposed to address a programme at Brigade Parade ground, the state government tried to stop it. I was held only after a court order," BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said.

"Why is the state government so afraid of RSS-BJP? It is a programme related to Sister Nivedita and in that too they are trying to find politics. This is nothing but undeclared Emergency. This is nothing but vendetta politics," he alleged.

The Trinamool Congress government however dismissed the allegations as baseless.

"The allegations are baseless. All scheduled programmes from September 26 to October 6 have been cancelled due to renovation work.

"The decision was taken a few days ago and all the organizations concerned which had booked the hall have been informed about the decision," State Food Supplies minister and chairman of the renovation committee of Mahajati Sadan Jyotipriyo Mullick said.

Sister Nivedita was a Scottish-Irish social worker, writer, teacher and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda.