A day after Union Home Secretary Amit Shah paid tribute to Birsa Munda, leader of the freedom movement led by tribal peoples against the British Raj, at a ceremony in the Bankura district of West Bengal , the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Friday, took aim at a misstep made by local BJP leaders in identifying a statue of the tribal icon.
TMC leaders alleged that Interior Minister Amit Amit Shah was so ignorant of Bengal culture that he garland himself from the wrong statue.
Calling Shah a “bohiragato (outsider)” the TMC tweeted, “’Bohiragato’ is back! The Union Interior Minister Amit Shah is so ignorant of Bengal culture that he insulted Bhagwan Birsa Munda by placing a garland of the wrong idol and placing his photo at the foot of another person. Will Bengal ever respect?
Retweeting this, Derek O’Brien, TMC Rajya Sabha member and party spokesperson, wrote: “You may be an expert on Gujarat Gymkhana. But not Bengal. ”
The TMC also carried out a symbolic purification program at the statue site on Friday afternoon by washing the ground with river water.
Birsa Munda, born in 1875, led a rebellion against the presidency of Bengal, a British-administered area that is now part of Jharkhand and Bengal.
Shah, who was in the state for two days, flew to Bankura from Kolkata in a helicopter on Thursday morning and began his tour by paying tribute to Birsa Munda. They took him to a huge statue of a tribal man in Puwabagan, about 10 km from the city of Bankura, but he put a garland of a framed image of the tribal leader preserved at the base of the statue.
“The statue is that of a tribal hunter. It was installed a few years ago as part of a highway beautification program. It is not a statue of Birsa Munda. We communicate it to the district leaders of Bankura one day before the event. But instead of taking Shah to one of the Birsa Munda statues, the party went ahead with the ceremony, ”said Sangiri Hembram, leader of the local tribal organization Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal.
Vivekananda Patra, chairman of the Bankura district unit of the BJP, admitted that a mistake was made when trying to spot a statue of Birsa Munda not far from the city of Bankura, where Shah held a closed-door meeting with leaders of 13 districts.
“The moment we found out about the mistake, we bought a printed image of the tribal leader. Shah did not garland the statue. He placed flowers before the framed picture, ”said Patra.
BJP state leader Debjit Sarkar said in Kolkata that, as the Union Minister of the Interior, whose travel routes must be verified in advance by security personnel, Shah’s convoy could not be taken to another statue of Birsa. Shah at the last minute.
Hours after Thursday’s ceremony, Shah went to Chaturdihi village with BJP State President Dilip Ghosh, National Secretary General Kailash Vijayvargiya, National Secretary Arvind Menon, National Vice President Mukul Roy and other leaders for lunch at the home of Bibhishan Hansda, a member of the local tribal community. Shah sat on the ground with the others and ate rice, chapati, dal and curry cooked in clay.
The TMC also mocked Shah for this.
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