Sitting atop her lion, the Hindu goddess Durga wields a celestial weapon in each of her 10 hands. But her target isn’t the usual demon of deceit, Mahishasura.
She’s taking aim at a different perceived foe representing the forces of evil: a striking figure with a blond coif, a rippling torso and a face modeled on US President Donald Trump.
Unveiled last week in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, known as Durga Pujo by Bengali Hindus, the sculpture’s symbolism was impossible to ignore.
In a celebration that honors the triumph of good over evil, the statue was more than just political satire. It was a symbol of a once tightly woven friendship now frayed by Trump’s attempts to reshape global trade.
“India and America had good relations previously but ever since Trump has come, he’s trying to suppress India, to push us over, to squash us,” Sanjay Basak, a member of the organizing committee of the Durga Puja installment in the city of Murshidabad, told CNN. “That’s why we have depicted Trump as this demon, vanquished by the powerful mother Durga.”
A pandal, or pavilion, depicted US President Donald Trump as the asur (demon), during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja this year
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