Trinamul Congress today lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he called Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as Bankim da.
He was taking part in a discussion to celebrate 150th year of Vande Mataram written by Chattopadhyay. It is the national song of India.
Coming down heavily on Mr Modi, Trinamul Congress MP Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said: “The way Prime Minister talked about Bakim Chandra, one felt as if he was taking part in an adda session over a cup of tea and as if Rishi Bankim was his friend. This is most unfortunate. We do not refer to the great sons of Bengal like that.”
She said the BJP’s effort to malign great sons of Bengal continued unabated. “JP Nadda, BJP’s national president, had said that Rabindranath was born in Shantiniketan. During Amit Shah’s visit to Kolkata in 2019, the statue of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised. Sukanta Majumdar, state BJP president and Union minister of state for education had said that Swami Vivekananda was a misguided Leftist while a minister in Madhya Pradesh had called Raja Rammohan Roy a British agent.”
Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee said: “I could not believe my ears. How could a Prime Minister refer to Bankim Chadra Chattopadhyay, whom we call Rishi Bankim Chandra as dada. When his mistake was pointed out, he called him Bankim Babu. Mr Modi’s minister called him Bankim Das Chattopadhyay. The attack on the Bengalis by the BJP has reached its height and the people of Bengal will retaliate.”