'One Lakh Gita Voices' Event Fizzles Out in Kolkata with Low Turnout and Disorganization

The highly anticipated "Lokkho Konthe Gita Path (reading of the Gita by one lakh voices)" event for the saffron ecosystem concluded on Sunday at the Brigade Parade Grounds here due to low attendance and inadequate facilities.

Even though three organizations coordinated the event—the Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad, the Matilal Bharat Tirtha Seba Mission Ashram, and the Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad—it was really an attempt by Bengal BJP front-runners Sukanta Majumdar and Suvendu Adhikari to demonstrate their strength.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was supposed to attend, but he canceled the event earlier in the week due to another engagement, according to a source who said the event lost focus. On Sunday in Delhi, Modi had a meeting with about 250 students from Jammu and Kashmir.

"Modiji did not attend, but he did send a letter praising the initiative, and our leaders shared it widely on social media and mainstream media. However, given that the turnout was well below one lakh, we believe it was a good thing he did not attend," a BJP official said in private.

Official sources estimate that there were fewer than 40,000 people present. To accommodate 5,000 people apiece for the Gita reading, there were 20 blocks. A visit to the location revealed that only seven blocks were occupied.

Adhikari disagreed. "After attending the 'Lokkho Kanthe Gita Path' at Brigade Parade Ground, I feel like my spiritual life has improved. The historic endeavor to have a record one lakh devotees recite the Bhagavad Gita in unison was effectively orchestrated," he declared.

Citing poor management, a number of attendees began to depart before the event even got underway.

We took an overnight train ride from Malda to get here. We did not receive the transportation that was meant to take us from the station to the venue. They postponed the start of the event. There was no food for us. Thus, we are departing," a participant named Haimanti Roy stated.

The native of Basanti, South 24-Parganas, Bhagirath Banerjee continued, saying, "I am sure this mismanagement would not have taken place if Modiji had come."

The BJP in Birbhum claimed to have promised two trains from Rampurhat to transport attendees to Calcutta. He claimed that once it was known Modiji would not visit, "trains were not given."

Leaders of the BJP asserted that the state government, led by Trinamul, made every effort to prevent people from organizing the TET on Sunday.

Adhikari claimed that "well over a lakh people attended the event, and all such moves by Trinamul failed."

Regarding turnout, Trinamul made fun of the BJP. Just 3,750 people attended the recitation, so they could have held the event in a nearby park instead of Brigade. Narendra Modi skipped because he knew there wouldn't be many people there, according to Kunal Ghosh of Trinamul.

On Sunday, the Congress and the CPM read portions of the state constitution.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.