A Hindu nationalist orgnization of Kolkata, observed Christmas on Tuesday in a different manner. Members of the orgnization named, Jaati’r katha (nation’s speech) gathered at Kolkata’s St John Church on Christmas morning to distribute free copies of Bhagvad Gita.

The entire Bhagvad Gita distribution program was live webcasted using Facebook. Many Christian devotees who had arrived at the church for prayers, stepped up to collect a copy of the Hindu holy book. Not only Christians but several Hindus who were passing by the church at that time, also collected Bhagvad Gita copies from the members of Jaati’r Katha.

As seen in the video, the members of the group peacefully stood at the church’s entrance and requested visitors to accept a copy of Bhagvad Gita. They didn’t cause troubles or inconvenience to anyone, neither tried to force anyone to accept Gita from them.

“At several places during Durga puja, Christians distributed free bible copies outside of puja pandals. At some places Muslim women in Hijab distributed copies of Quran and so we also decided to start a new initiative of distributing Gita on Christmas,” President of Jaati’r Katha, Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya told Satyavijayi.

“One may perceive our initiative in two ways, it may be seen as an attempt to strengthen country’s communal harmony by making them aware of our beliefs and customs. Otherwise one may see it in this way, that we went to their religious place to preach our religion, just like they did during Durga puja,” he further added

However Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya asserted that 25th December is not only Christmas but also Tulsi Puja for Hindus, he further criticised the Ramkrishna mission for celebrating Christmas instead of upholding the Hindu festival which falls on the the same day.

Speaking on how many copies were distributed, he said “we went there with 100 copies of Gita and distributed all of them. Several nuns came forward to collect Bhagvad Gita while some said that they would’ve taken but can’t read bengali. For those who can’t read bengali, from next year we will also keep English and Hindi versions with ourselves.”

“Swami Vivekananda had said that everyone who resides on this side of Sindhu is a river is a Hindu. We believe Hindu is more than just a religion but a race and our mission is spreading awareness about the Hindu culture,” he said while speaking about the mission of his orgnization.

He also added that they didn’t face any sort of resistance in distributing Bhagvad Gita and were assisted by the administration.

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