One Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata is commemorative of last year’s post-poll violence

Among the innumerable pandals in the district, one Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata stands apart. Although meant to look festive as a pandal is for celebrating Ma Durga, this particular pandal is more ominous, as it highlights the plight and pain of mothers and families, who lost their members in the post-election violence after the assembly elections last year.

The pandal is located a few minutes’ walk into a narrow street from the main road—one that connects two prominent localities of Kankurgachi and Manicktala.

Unlike other pandals, the ambience is gloomy here. The dark fabric for the makeshift wall makes the pandal, which already has limited lighting, even darker. The venue for the pandal is also important as it was witness to the violence that claimed a young man’s live—one who had organised the puja for the first time in 2020.

Biswajit Sarkar, who represents Sree Sree Saraswati O Kali Mata Mandir Parishad, can be seen instructing two men while they put final touches on the pandal. Biswajit is the elder brother of Abhijit Sarkar, an idol maker and a Bharatiya Janata Party worker—and a victim of the post-poll violence. Abhijit was allegedly attacked by the All Indian Trinamool Congress supporters on May 2 last year, the day assembly results were announced.

The trust attached to the temple that Abhijit had started also survived.

There are two idols of Goddess Durga in the pandal; the first depicts her protecting a baby, as atrocities have been committed against innocent people. There’s also a martyr’s altar, and Abhijit’s photograph.

“We aren’t calling it a ‘theme’. We are presenting true incidents. Whatever happened, or is happening, in West Bengal—the tears of mothers and the blood that painted the ground red… Durga Puja is celebrated as a festival…. The sound of speakers, the lights… But our pandal is dark. There’s no shehnai or songs, just the sound of crying mothers,” says Biswajit.

The pandal will play recordings of mothers who cried after having lost their sons, instead of spiritual songs. “Why will I indulge in politics over violence? What has happened with me, is what’s reflected,” Biswajit explains the reason behind the maudlin depiction.