A Durga Puja pandal in Ranchi, with the theme of ‘Vatican City’, has angered the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which alleged that it has been done to “hurt religious sentiments of Hindus” and encourage conversion, charges that were rejected by the organisers.Vatican City in Europe is the world’s smallest sovereign state and the centre of the Roman Catholic Church.
VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal shared on X his reservation about a Durga Puja marquee on the theme of ‘Vatican City’.
“This has been done with an objective to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and aimed at encouraging religious conversion. If the organising committee of this Durga Puja pandal is so interested in secularism, I would ask them to display a photograph of a Hindu God or Goddess at any event organised by the Church or at Madrasas in Ranchi,” Bansal told PTI on Thursday.
He said that religious symbols of Christianity have been placed at the entrance of the Puja pandal and photographs of Mother Mary and other Christian characters have been displayed inside it.
“The VHP Jharkhand unit would take a strong decision about this soon. We would like to appeal to the organisers to respect religious sentiments and remove Christian symbols and photographs from the pandal,” added Bansal.
Vicky Yadav, president of RR Sporting Club which made the Durga Puja pandal rejected the allegations of VHP.