Threatened, forced to change name by Hindutva people, Netizens react to ‘Kolkata beef Festival’

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Kolkata: Outrageous bold threats, warnings, abuses by the right wing Hindutva organizations have a become a norm over the past few years with the saffron party returning to power for the second consecutive term, this muscle power seems to stay now for years ahead.

Instilling terror in the hearts of minority community over religious beliefs by majority community followed by hatred filled organizations threats, will this ever see the light of justice will remain a silent question in the hearts and minds of secular people.

Organizers of Kolkata Beef festival were threatened, forced to change the festival’s name to ‘Kolkata beep festival’ by political parties, Hindutva pages expressing, inviting hatred, news18 reports.

Kolkata since time immemorial has had quite a rich heritage of food and ‘beef’ of all foods have been an integral part of the heterogeneous cuisine of Calcuttans .

Guess what? The organizers adamant about their concept refused to alter the menu.

“Roasted beef chilli, black beef ribs, beef pikada, beef momo, beef burger, beef pizza are some of the things on our menu. We also have some pork items,” said Arjun Kar, one of the organisers.

But yes they agreed on changing the name so as to avoid further trouble and curb the threats.

Part of a music band ‘The Accidental Note’ organizer Arjun Kar came up with the idea for a beef festival in the city and in fact chose this name very much to the annoyance of many.

“I was going through some amazing food options available and I felt bad that they are usually not available to us. I thought we should have an event which allows the people of Kolkata who love beef anyway to try out a whole menu of options they probably haven’t yet,” he told.

Abuses, threats started to pour in as soon as Kar announced the festival, created an event on Facebook which is slated to take place on June 23.

“Simultaneously we started getting abuses and threats, but mostly not from Kolkata, but people in UP, Jharkhand et cetera,” he said.

Speaking of the after events, Kar said it was ‘kind of funny’ until Hindutva right-wing pages started criticizing them for organizing the beef festival.

“A particular political party got involved and even the venue started getting calls,” Kar said.

Never intended to make the event political event says the organizer. “I never knew beef was this big a deal, in Kolkata at least,” Kar said.

“We don’t want the event to be politicised. We are young chaps, who just want to enjoy a night of fun and frolic. We didn’t want political parties to get involved in the first place,” said another organizer.

This vibrant city Kolkata also the ‘city of joy’ has largely been immune to the effects of ‘beef politics’, but outrage against beef seems slowly seeping in this city too.