The politics over Chhath Puja continued on Sunday with BJP MP Parvesh Verma challenging Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to stop him from celebrating the festival at the ghat on the Yamuna banks at ITO.
“I will be accompanied by Purvanchali brothers and sisters and we will clean the Chhath ghat at ITO and start the puja. I challenge Mr. Kejriwal to stop us if he can,” Mr. Verma said in a video statement. He added that it was unacceptable that Mr. Kejriwal had banned Chhath Puja on the Yamuna banks this year.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said it was the BJP, which, through the office of the Lieutenant-Governor, who is also the chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), prohibited the use of Chhath ghats on the Yamuna banks.
The DDMA, however, allowed celebrations at other designated sites across the city, following a protest by the BJP outside the Chief Minister’s office last month.
The Delhi Government said that it was not against Chhath and had written to the Centre seeking directions for the conduct of the festival.
The tussle has been going on with AAP alleging that the BJP is not allowing preparations for Chhath at the sites where the land is under the control of the DDA and the municipal corporations.
AAP MLA Somnath Bharti said the Lieutenant-Governor had decided that he would not allow Chhath, but Mr. Kejriwal fought for permission to be granted so that people from Purvanchal could celebrate the festival.
“For following COVID-19 protocol, the Yamuna banks would have been the perfect place since it is so spacious. But now that there will be no rituals and worship on the banks, people will start crowding the smaller riverbanks. It is at the behest of the BJP that the Lieutenant Governor issued an order that Chhath should not be held on the Yamuna banks,” AAP said.
The Congress said both the BJP and AAP were showing discrimination towards the people of Poorvanchal by denying them permission to hold Chhath at Yamuna ghats. “If these parties in power wanted, they could have easily got the permission to celebrate the festival on the Yamuna banks,” it said.
Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar appealed to AAP and BJP leaders not to politicise Chhath Puja.
The Delhi Government has declared November 10 a public holiday on account of the festival.
