Adhikari has defended the practice, maintaining that Hindu traditions are not uniform and that dietary customs can vary according to the deity, occasion and individual belief. He has also said he follows a sattvik diet during Mahashtami and the month of Kartik, while accepting non-vegetarian offerings to Goddess Kali. “I am a Sanatani Hindu,” Adhikari said, underscoring his argument that different religious occasions can entail different practices.
Ghosh’s defence follows a similar line: religion, in his formulation, leaves room for plurality rather than prescription.
Yet the controversy has exposed an awkward contrast within the BJP’s Bengal politics.
Days before the Kalighat episode, Bageshwar Baba, during his three-day Hanumant Katha programme at Liluah in Howrah, criticised the consumption of non-vegetarian food around Durga Puja pandals. “Please don’t mind, but there is something I don’t like about West Bengal,” he told devotees, objecting to the preparation and consumption of non-vegetarian food during Navratri and Durga Puja.
He went further, urging Hindus to “wake up” and remove those whom he described as sacrilegious.
The remarks triggered a backlash in Bengal, where fish and meat occupy a very different cultural space from the strictly vegetarian traditions followed by some Hindu communities elsewhere in the country.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya responded bluntly: “How can Bengalis not eat fish and meat?” He described Bageshwar Baba’s comments as his personal opinion.
That response, followed by Ghosh’s defence of fish bhog, has effectively drawn a line between the dietary prescriptions voiced by the religious leader and the political realities confronting the BJP in Bengal.
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