Fact Check: Did Bengal varsity allowed Iftaar but not Saraswati Puja?

A claim has gone viral with the claim that an Iftar party at a Kolkata college has hurt Hindu sentiments.

Many users on the social media have criticised the Presidency University for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments over the Iftar party.

An image allegedly taken from the Iftar party posted on Twitter claimed, " "#WestBengal Today evening, Dawat-e-Iftaar organised at Presidency University, Kolkata. Most of the students joined this Iftar. For information, this University didn't allow to do Saraswati Puja inside campus. Left students orprotested [sic] against Saraswati Puja. This is #Secularism."

"Dawat-e-iftar in Presidency College's Eden Hindu hostel. Plz remember, Presidency University did not allow Saraswati Puja within the compound citing it goes against "secular" nature of the institution," said spokesperson of the BJP Keya Ghosh while sharing two images of the the Iftar party.

Some websites even shared an article about the Iftar party being held at the Presidency University and questioned why this was being allowed. The articles cited social media accounts who had claimed that the university had granted permission for the Iftar party, but had denied the same for Saraswati Puja.

We have learnt that the Iftar party was held in the Eden Hindu Hostel and not inside the university as is being claimed. It has also been learnt that a Saraswati puja was also held in the Eden Hindu hostel.

We did a search on Google for the Eden Hindu hostel and found that the images being posted with the viral claim are not from the Presidency university. These searches made it clear that the images are from Eden Hindu hostel and not from inside the Presidency University campus.

We also found several report which said that the student body of the Trinamool Congress had sought permission to perform the Saraswati puja inside the university campus. The same was however denied by the university citing grounds of secularism. These reports however said that no religious events had been allowed inside the campus.

Hence these reports make it clear that the an Iftar party was hosted in the Eden Hindu college and not the Presidency University as is being claimed on various social media accounts.