As poet Srijata echoed state tourism minister Gautam Deb and other speakers and described intolerance and how the country was witnessing a “very bad time,” a handful of activists associated with the Hindu Jagran Mancha (HJM) staged a demonstration and waved black flags at the poet in front of Mainak, a state-run tourist lodge, in Siliguri on Saturday.

There was no police presence as the activists reached there all of a sudden. Staging a brief demonstration, they, however, left the place quickly. Srijata Bandyopadhyay was attending the First Darjeeling Literary Meet-2018, which was inaugurated by Minister Gautam Deb here on Saturday.

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HJM activists, who shouted ‘go back Srijata’ slogans, branded him a “denigration of the Hindu religion.”

“Srijata should be driven out of the Literature meet here. Organisers should invite Taslima Nasrin and Salman Rushdie too if Srijata takes part in the programme,” they said.

Asked to comment on the development, poet Srijata, visibly worried, said: “I should not comment on it instantly here on Saturday.”

A member of the event organizing team, Sebanti Ghosh, said the “chief minister has asked him not to comment anything on this issue.”

Addressing the inauguration programme here on Saturday, poet Srijata, echoing other speakers like Minister Gautam Deb, poet Subodh Sarkar, another poet from Bangladesh Md Samim Reza, filmmaker Anjan Datta and other writers, said: “We can’t take up weapons against weapons, but we can write and give poems against weapons.”

“The country is not going through good times now. It is not desired,” Srijata said.

Notably, a Siliguri-based member of the fundamentalist group has filed a police complaint against Srijata in March last year, saying that a poem of his that criticizes Yogi Adityanath after he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, hurts Hindu religious sentiments.

Samim Reza also pointed out that not only in India, but in Bangladesh too, the present times were not good.

Appreciating the efforts to organize the Darjeeling Literary Meet, filmmaker Anajan Datta said: “Darjeeling itself is a brand and the Lit meet will continue in a bigger form. An international film festival, an art festival and festival on literature can be organized in Darjeeling and its adjoining areas. Besides the ethnic identity, intellectual identity for Darjeeling should now be focused on.”