Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], September 16 (ANI): A Ganesh idol installed in Secunderabad’s Yapral inspired by the Bollywood movie Bajirao Mastani sparked a controversy due to green cap placed on the idol’s head.
The organisers clarified that due to unforeseen circumstances, minor errors occurred in the making of the idol and they sincerely regret any unintentional harm caused.
They attributed the controversy to a mistake by the artist.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Raja Singh said, “A Ganesh idol with a round green cap put on his head and green colour dress code was getting viral. In a way that shows Ganesh’s idol is in a Muslim avatar. As soon as it came to my notice I enquired about it and got to know that it’s in Secunderabad Yapral area. I spoke to the committee member, soon after, they removed the round cap and fixed a Pagidi and changed the dress code as well. They are saying that they wanted to give a Bajirao Mastani theme but unfortunately, they didn’t know that it would go viral. Listening to me they changed the cap and dress code and fixed a Pagidi on the Ganesh Idol. So tomorrow the Ganesh Idol will be immersed he added.”
Mahesh from the Young Leo Youth Association from Prashanth Nagar said that they have been organising this Ganesh idol for the last 11 years.
He said, “Unfortunately we have come across news articles and people are talking about controversy. On a larger basis, I would like to say that we haven’t done anything or want to hurt anybody’s sentiments or ego. We selected this theme from the movie Bajirao Mastani. Due to the heavy rains before the festival and as the artist was unable to deliver on time, there were some minor errors in terms of the final finish and backdrops which turned out to be a different experience. Otherwise, it would have been fantastic. We sincerely regret this from the entire team. We didn’t do anything intentionally or want to hurt anyone.”
He said that it was just an accidental outcome of nature and the artist’s act.
“So ideally there is a cap which we have selected, so this is the cap we wanted to make it this way, this is matching the cloth and it’s a traditional Hindu type of a thing, the Rajasthani style or whatever you would like to call. However, the artist was not able to perform on time and there was a temporary arrangement made we have already ordered for Pagidi which came a day later. With rains and thousands of Ganesh pandals everywhere we were not able to actually procure material on time. Saturday was the festival day and on Sunday we replaced it with Pagidi,” he further said.
He said that the cap was given by the artist himself.
“Meanwhile, the entire portion would be bald so that’s the reason why we have taken the cap. The cap was given by the artist himself. It’s purely coincidental. All of us are Hindus and a couple of others are from RSS, we respect Hindutva and also other religions. However, we have intentionally not done anything to hurt anybody’s sentiments. We are Hindus. The design was something else and 10 percent of the design went haywire so that the reason was this outcome,” he said.
Another member of the organisation Krishna Shanmukham said that this is just a small mistake by the artist.
“I am an advocate and law-abiding Citizen. I am from an RSS background. We never had the intention to hurt anyone on the basis of caste or Religion. We are very sorry from our side. Bajirao Mastani was our theme” he added. (ANI)
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