Overview
- West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose cut short a trip to attend the Brigade Parade Ground event and told the crowd the state was ready to end “religious arrogance,” a reference to the Murshidabad mosque ceremony a day earlier.
- Organisers Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad claimed participation of up to five lakh, while their own on-ground count cited about one lakh people actively chanting selected chapters of the Bhagavad Gita.
- Senior BJP figures, including Suvendu Adhikari, Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh, framed the gathering as Hindu unity and warned against demographic change, underscoring its political messaging.
- The recital followed suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir laying a foundation stone for a ‘Babri Masjid-style’ mosque in Murshidabad, deepening a war of words between the BJP and TMC.
- Kabir said he would organise a Quran recitation involving about one lakh people before mosque construction proceeds, as officials and organisers highlighted extensive security with multiple gates, CCTV and drones at the Kolkata venue.