TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya finds himself in hot water for comparing human excreta to the national emblem, Ashok Stambh, that was embossed on a seat cover in the PM’s official plane Air India One .
Now, it is not surprising to see Trinamool Congress leaders deride national symbols; this is the same political party whose senior leader Firhad Hakim had escorted a Pakistani journalist around Kolkata and introduced a major area of the city, Metia Bruz, as mini-Pakistan.
The party which unleashed horrific post-poll violence and sexual assaults on the workers of the Opposition BJP party, is home to numerous uncouth individuals posing as leaders. Last year, a known TMC aide and self-appointed Bengali sub-nationalist, Garga Chatterjee was booked by the Assam Police for making derogatory comments against the Ahom community and labelling the Ahom kingdom founder Chaolung Sukaphaa a ‘Chinese invader’.
Late actor-cum TMC politician, Tapas Pal has infamously threatened political rivals of sending goons to molest women in their houses.
Debangshu, an amateur TMC member who has earned a reputation for himself only by making baseless, provocative and comical Facebook posts, is only following the footsteps of such leaders.
The derogatory comment was made by Bhattacharya on an image posted from the PM’s official FB page, which showed PM Modi going through some files on the plane while flying for his recent US visit. The seat cover on the empty seat adjacent to the PM had the National Emblem, the Ashok Stambh, embossed in golden thread.
Debangshu Bhattacharya’s comment in Bengali translates to “the wiping cloth in the seat at the left has some yellow stains on it. Perhaps it was spread on the beds of West Bengal’s BJP leaders.”
Bengali social media users were quick to recognize the derogatory insinuation made in the comment. Bhattacharya, in his now-deleted comment, insinuated that BJP leaders in West Bengal are so scared (of Mamata) that they are sh*tting their beds and the cloth was spread on their beds while they did so.
If the juvenile and derogatory jibe on the national emblem was not bad enough, Bhattacharya’s comment also shows a complete lack of empathy for the thousands of Bengali Hindus who have suffered in the state-sponsored pogrom unleashed by his party leadership.
A complaint has been filed against Bhattacharya by Vivekananda Vichar Manch secretary Tapan Das with the NCC police station in Tripura for making the defamatory comment.
In his complaint copy, Das states that with fundamental rights citizens also have certain duties to fulfil. “But the way one Debangshu Bhattacharya has tried to tarnish the image of India’s National emblem, Prime Minister of India through derogatory remarks, it deserves stringent action,” reads the complaint.
This is not the first time the uncivilized and slapdash politician-in-the making affronted a national icon. A repeat offender, Debangshu Bhattacharya had earlier distorted the National Anthem as well.
Bhattacharya’s nonsensical rants on social media expose his lack of knowledge, on both history and politics. The 25-year-old is bereft of the basic understanding of the National Anthem.
In 1950, few chosen lines from one of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s poems, Bharat Bhagya Bidhata were adopted as the National Anthem. Though the poem had other lyrics, only the chosen few formed the National Anthem. This was decades before the Bharatiya Janata Party had even come into existence.
However, the TMC representative made references to those lyrics of the poem that were not a part of the National Anthem, and claimed on his Facebook live session that they were part of the National Anthem and that the Bharatiya Janata Party was pondering on introducing a new National anthem as the lyrics of the existing one didn’t fit their politics.
It is high time that such politicians and publicity seekers who don’t respect national symbols are dealt with a heavy hand.
