Bengal ready to end religious arrogance, usher in change: Guv

Kolkata, Dec 7 (PTI) West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Sunday asserted that the state was "ready to end religious arrogance", while pointing out at "something witnessed in Murshidabad a day before".

Bose also said state is passing through "a sad state of affairs" and "ready" to usher in a change without elaborating on the issue.

The governor’s remarks came a day after suspended Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir laid the foundation stone for a mosque modelled on Ayodhya's Babri Masjid in Rejinagar, Murshidabad, despite the Supreme Court observing against naming a mosque as Babri Masjid.

Bose, who was addressing a Bhavad Gita recital at the Brigade Parade Ground here, said the state is also ready to end corruption.

"Rajya (Bengal) is going through a sad state of affairs....Bengal is ready for change (taiyyar hain)", he said.

"West Bengal is ready to end religious arrogance," he added.

Reciting from the Bhagavad Gita, the governor said, "Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam dharma-sansthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge", which means "to protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma, I appear on this earth, age after age." He also referred to one "Narendra" (Narendranath Dutta - Swami Vivekananda) as a spiritual icon who introduced Hinduism and Indian spirituality to the west.

The 'Panch Lakkho Konthe Gita Path' (Gita chanting by five lakh voices) programme was organised by the Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad, a collective of monks and spiritual leaders drawn from various monasteries and Hindu religious institutions.

Political analysts claimed that the foundation stone laying ceremony for a mosque modelled on Ayodhya's Babri Masjid event was deliberately timed on December 6, the anniversary of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition. PTI SUS AMR MNB