The story of the disrupted and delayed immersion of Mumbai’s famous Ganpati idol, Lalbaugcha Raja, over the weekend, has by now turned into something of a modern folklore.

The delay of more than 13 hours on Saturday-Sunday has been attributed to a number of issues—some said there were technical snags, others justified that the high tide did not allow the idol to be transferred from the trolley on which it was taken for the visarjan to the raft that would finally immerse it, and a growing section of devotees pointed to another aspect altogether.

Bappa’s darshan, they pointed out, was determined by class. The average devotee stood in queues for hours on end and was then shoved or pushed even before she/he could take the darshan. The rich and the famous were, unsurprisingly, given due respect and time at the feet of the idol.

Videos were circulated showing the difference. Then, on the visarjan day, the people who did it traditionally were apparently ignored to allow the Ambani scion to do the honours and accompany Bappa on his long journey to the immersion point at Chowpatty.

Here, the story goes that the traditional people, like the fisherfolk, and their ways of visarjan were again sidelined in favour of modern methods by the omnipresent corporate. Those who visited spoke of how the pandal was air-conditioned and replete with posters of Jio. The narrative pointed to the fact that Bappa was displeased with being hijacked by deep pockets, so to say, and divine energy somehow ensured that the will and........

© Free Press Journal