Ahead of the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, idols of the Hindu deity were found vandalised in Jharia village in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
The development was confirmed on social media by BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya on Saturday (14th September). In a tweet, he said, “In Jharia village (under Goghat PS in Hooghly), idols of Maa Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati were found desecrated – raped and defiled.”
He has accused the Goghat police of inaction in the case. “Despite the police offering hollow assurance of apprehending and punishing the perpetrators to the enraged villagers, it is all too predictable that this case, like countless other cases, that do not demand the exoneration of a TMC offender, will be relegated to the tortuous, cyclical farce of an investigation,” Amit Malvia added.
The BJP spokesperson had shared a video of the incident from his X handle. In the video, freshly carved idols of Goddess Durga could be seen in a desecrated state.
Amit Malviya had lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee government over appeasement politics. “If even our Goddesses aren’t safe, what hope remains for women of Bengal, who embody their divine essence?” he concluded.
This is not the first case of idol vandalism that has come to light from West Bengal. Earlier in May this year, three Hindu temples were desecrated by unidentified miscreants in Dhupguri in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal.
Following the incident, the local Hindus protested against the incident and blocked a highway, demanding strict action against the accused.