Kolkata auditorium cancels booking for event Bhagwat was to attend

Authorities at state-run auditorium Mahajati Sadan here have cancelled the booking for an October 3 programme which RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was scheduled to attend, an organising committee member said on Tuesday.

"We booked the auditorium in June and furnished details of the programme. Sadan authorities informed us on Friday last that the facility could not be provided due to work to be undertaken at the auditorium," Rantideb Sengupta, General Secretary of Sister Nivedita 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations Committee, told IANS.

An auditorium official said all bookings from September 26 to October 6 stood cancelled due to renovation work to be undertaken during the period.

Sengupta said they were looking for an alternate venue and would hold the programme on October 3.

Condemning the booking cancellation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Spokesperson Jishnu Basu told IANS: "This is a politically motivated decision. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind organised an event on Triple Talaq at the same venue in the last week of August."

BJP West Bengal unit too claimed that permission for party President Amit Shah's meeting at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata too was denied on the ground that the venue was "pre-occupied".

"When we sought stadium's booking a week ago for Amit Shah's event, authorities rejected the proposal," Bharatiya Janata Party National Secretary Rahul Sinha said.

"There have been many instances when permission for our party programmes was denied and we found that the proposed venues were not used on those days," he alleged.

--IANS

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