After M.F. Hussain was hauled over the coals for an alleged slight to goddess Saraswati, it’s novelist and poet Sunil Gangopadhyay in a similar predicament over a passage from his autobiography. A former IPS and RAW officer, Bibhuti Bhushan Nandi, today filed an FIR against Gangopadhyay and the editor and publisher of a leading Bengali daily for ‘‘denigrating the Hindu religion and hurting religious sentiments.’’Gangopadhyay’s autobiography Ardhek Jiban (Half of a Life) published four years ago describes a childhood memory on the eve of Saraswati puja. ‘‘I was sitting in front of the idol. The idol’s elegance aroused the man in me and I became excited,’’ he wrote. But what triggered Nandi was the writer’s reaction in the daily to his getting this year’s Sarasawati Samman. The piece wondered how the novelist felt about receiving award after what he wrote about the Goddess.‘‘.Sunil defiled the deity of learning. And by publishing it the newspaper has hurt the sentiments of all Hindus like me,’’ said Nandi. The case was filed under non-bailable offence.Non-plussed, Gangopadhyay said: ‘‘I have never gone to jail. Maybe this time I will get an opportunity,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s so childish to file such case. In my book, I wrote about the sentiments of a young boy about a deity. It was all written in a light vein. I can’t understand how somebody can go to the police with such a frivolous complaint. It’s ridiculous.’’
