Mumbai: Annual Bandra Fair hijacked by 'outsiders'

The annual Bandra Fair which kicks off today celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Mount which falls on the Sunday following September 8 the birthday of Virgin Mary The weeklong celebration when all roads lead to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount that overlooks the Arabian Sea is one of Mumbais most popular religious celebrations dating back to over 300 yearsThe Church controls 150 stalls from about 500 that surround Mount Mary Church during the annual fair Itrsquos also one of the most controversialWith over 60000 visitors arriving in the first few hours on day one last year safety has been top of mind for the tony suburbrsquos cosmopolitan residents Last year the fair came under the scanner of the Bombay High Court after a PIL was filed alleging that the BMC had not taken adequate safety precautions or drafted rules to govern the more than 500 stalls that sell everything from pickle and eats to arms and legs made of wax for offering to the MotherMGP spokesperson Walter Murzello PicNimesh Dave A Facebook page of the East Indian Community titled Save Bandra Fair ran a post last August that rued how ldquopaid activists and officialsrdquo were trying to rob the community of celebrating a 300yearold tradition A silent candle light vigil was called on August 15 at the Mount Mary steps to announce solidarity That same week the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat MGP a welfare organisation representing the cityrsquos ancient East Indian villages ran a post on its Facebook page taking a dig at the inconvenience faced by Bandraites who were rooting for fewer stalls to contain chaos ldquoAll Bandra residents who have a problem can go for a holiday to their native placerdquo the post readVisitors at the stalls set up the weeklong Bandra fair last year Ironically the very same organisation isnrsquot in the mood to support the fair this year calling it a ldquocommercial eventrdquo In the very same breath its representatives are keen to have a slice of the commercial pie questioning the fairness behind the process of allotting stalls that line over 12 lanes running up to the ChurchAdvocate Godfrey Pimenta vice president of The Bombay East Indian Association said ldquoApproximately five hundred stalls are going to be pitched on land owned by the Church and BMC While the Church has an internal process of selecting stall owners based on their past participation the rest are handed out to highest bidders by the civic authority This year not a single stall has been given to an East Indianrdquo The association is one of the earliest establishments set up in 1887 to unite the community during the British eraAccording to figures available to him the most coveted stalls line the steps of the Church and their rentals decrease as you move further down the road Pimenta claimed that about 20 stalls have been given to bidders at a cost of R4 lakh 40 thousand per stall Of approximately 500 stalls available 150 are under the control of the Church while the rest are controlled by the BMC While the East Indian communityrsquos representatives urge a more transparent process of allocation they rue the fact that as Mumbairsquos oldest inhabitants who in fact first promoted the fair they have been ruthlessly sidelined Also their demand for a Special Holy Mass in the East Indian Marathi dialect is yet to be acknowledged by the Church they say The MGP has communicated its disappointment to the Church and Bandra West MLA Ashish ShelarIn fact according to Walter Murzello spokesperson and trustee of MGP the organisation has reports that indicate that the land where Mount Mary Church sits originally belonged to members of the East Indian community ldquoWe were the first people to promote the celebration and support it But what began as a religious celebration has now turned commercial The East Indians played a major role in assisting the Church and municipal authorities organise the feast since inception Wersquove been reduced to mere volunteers robbed of our chance to showcase our ageold tradition of food and culturerdquo he said He sees the skewed allocation of stalls as ldquoinjusticerdquo which he finds unacceptable considering ldquothe Church promotes equalityrdquoAlthough the Churchrsquos structure is just about 100 years old the legacy of the statue of Our Lady of Mount dates back to the 1700s when according to some records the statue was disfigured by Arab pirates its right hand broken and tossed into the ocean According to legend a Koli fisherman dreamt that he would find it in the sea and did In 1760 the damaged chapel of Mount Maryrsquos Basilica was rebuilt and the statue that the fisherman had found was substituted with a statue of Our Lady of Navigators from the nearby St Andrewrsquos Church in BandraAniceto Pereira assistant rector of Mount Mary Church who supervises the allocation of stalls confirmed having received a letter from members of the community but said the request had come late ldquoTheir grievance is worth considering and I have assured them that it will be addressed after the feast The Church is in control of about 150 stalls and are handed out to traditional vendors from across India irrespective of cast creed or religion We have nothing to do with the stalls controlled by the BMC ldquo he saidAddressing the safety concern Pereira said the Church had received a notification from Mumbai fire brigade to reduce the number of stalls ldquoWe canrsquot up numbers just to keep everyone happy but we havenrsquot said a no to them eitherrdquo he said