Mumbai:
The immersion of Mumbai’s iconic and oldest Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh idol at Girgaon Chowpatty witnessed a delay of nearly 13 hours this year, owing to high tide and technical snags, breaking its usual traditions and leaving some devotees angry.
Traditionally, the 18-foot-tall idol’s procession begins on Anant Chaturdashi – the final day of the Ganesh festival and idols’ ‘visarjans’, but is immersed the next morning around 9 am. This time, too, the immersion was planned around the same time. However, organisers said there was a high tide in the morning, which made it impossible for them to conduct the immersion, and could only take place when the high tide eased – around 10:30 pm. This was also the ‘sutak period’ – a spiritually significant and inauspicious time during the lunar eclipse – which created discomfort among the devotees.
Another tradition that was broken this year was the high-technological platform used for the immersion of the Every year, Lalbaugcha Raja was immersed from a floating platform made from the boats of the ‘Koli’ (fishermen) community. This platform witnessed some technical snags, causing a delay in the immersion, leaving the idol stranded at the Girgaon Chowpatty for a few hours.
This angered the fishermen community, with them saying that they were “sidelined”.
“Lalbaugcha Raja belongs to everyone and not just one person. No one can rule over Ganpati Bappa (Lord Ganesh). In 1934, when fishermen and labourers did not have money and were facing problems in the market for selling fish, the fishermen had made a vow to Ganpati Bappa that if their market problem was solved, they would establish a public Ganpati every year. Lalbaugcha Raja was established due to that vow. But year after year, fishermen started being deprived of the ‘darshan’,” members of the fishermen community told NDTV.
They claimed that while they were granted a whole day earlier to attend the Lalbaugcha Raja festivities, the time was gradually reduced to a few hours and then none. Raja.
About the Author
