Do not treat Saraswati Puja as Valentine's Day, warns 'Bajrang Dal' poster in Bengal

Controversy erupted over aposter found in West Bengal's Hooghly district which warnedpeople that strict action will be taken against couples movingaround during the day of the Saraswati Puja as treating thisauspicious occasion as the Valentines Day, a ''westernculture'', is not acceptable.

For long, students - male and female - are seenspending time together on this day after paying obeisance toDevi Saraswati in their educational institutes across thestate. And thus, of late it has earned the sobriquet ofValentine's Day of Bengalis.

The poster found pasted on a wall near the Hooghlyriver in Uttarpara town on Tuesday was purportedly issued bythe Bajrang Dal, but a leader of the organisation said it wasnot involved in the incident.

The Bajrang Dal is known to be against the celebrationof the Valentine's Day which, it says, is a western concept.

The poster written in Bengali also said that when ''ourgovernment'' will come, it will enact laws to protect ''ourculture'' from such corruption.

The ruling Trinamool Congress described it asregressive, while the BJP said that none should issue threatson the issue.

''While we are striving to move forward, they aretrying to move the society backwards,'' Trinamool Congressspokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

Claiming that those who have put up such a poster aretrying to dictate how people should live their lives, Ghoshsaid that it is alien to the culture and ethos of Bengal.

The BJP's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said thatpeople may have their own views on such matters, but ''neitherpoliticisation nor threats on the issue are desirable.'' The saffron party has no link with the poster, hesaid.