West Bengal Congress leaders lodged a police complaint in Kolkata on Tuesday (September 8, 2026) against Bageshwar Dham chief priest Dhirendra Shastri over his recent remarks asking people in the State to avoid eating non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja festivities.

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The comments have triggered a major political row in West Bengal, with the Congress accusing him of hurting Bengali sentiments and insulting the State’s culture and traditions. 

“Those who speak the language and belong to our State are all Bengalees or Bangalis, as there is no such division. He has uttered vile sentences and preached what to eat and what not to eat during the Durga Puja in our State, which is a prestigious festival and puja,” the police complaint filed at the Bhawanipur police station stated. The Congress also objected to the language used by Mr. Shastri, which it said was derogatory and insulting to Bengali culture. 

The complaint was filed by Pradip Prasad, president of the South Kolkata District Congress Committee. Congress workers also held a protest outside the police station and demanded that an FIR be registered against Mr. Shastri based on the complaint. 

Similar complaints were filed by other Congress leaders at the Muchipara police station in north Kolkata. According to party leaders, the party has filed multiple complaints against Mr. Shastri across all districts of West Bengal. 

“Who wants fish and meat shops to be closed in Bengal during Durga Puja? Those who are in support of this, turn on your phone lights. May this appeal reach the people of the State government. I am offended by the fact that during Navratri and Durga Puja they make ‘dirty’ food (non-veg) behind the pandals,” Mr. Shastri had said at an event in Howrah a few days ago. He said people who eat such food are not religious, and described them as pakhandis (hypocrites). 

“Bengali culture, lifestyle, eating habits, or religious practices, or who we believe in, or pray to cannot be dictated by a godman like him,” senior Congress leader Suman Roy Chaudhuri told The Hindu on Tuesday (September 8).

Mr. Roy Chaudhuri also alleged that such godmen are “like the sleeper cells of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” who travel to different parts of the country to provoke people and impose what he described as North Indian culture. 

Even as the State BJP leadership sought to downplay the controversy, the Opposition stepped up its attack on Mr. Shastri and the BJP over his remarks.