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By Dipaneeta Das: Bengal’s industries minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Dr Sashi Panja on Tuesday, in a veiled jibe, at Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that a long beard doesn’t make anybody a part of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s legacy.
“Just by growing a long beard nobody becomes Rabindranath Tagore,” Panja said.
Speaking at a press meet, Panja slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming he is endorsing the BJP’s “contradictory moves”. “The BJP’s moves and thoughts are contradictory,” she said.
The minister recalled the BJP’s faux pas when Amit Shah, in 2021, wrongly claimed Shantiniketan to be Tagore’s birthplace.
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“Today they are here (in Bengal) but once upon a time, they did not know which was the janam bhoomi and which was their karam bhoomi of Rabindranath Tagore. I hope that by now they know that Tagore’s janam bhoomi is Jorasanko Thakurbar and karam bhoomi is Visva Bharati in Shantiniketan,” Panja said.
“Now look at the difference – today the janam bhoomi is open where he (Amit Shah) is paying tribute but the karam bhoomi, the abode of peace, which should be running on Tagore’s ideologies, is smeared by the imposition of saffronisation,” she alleged.
The Bengal minister said Shah’s move is “total disregard and total dichotomy” on behalf of the BJP. “I hope they have come out of the ideas they brought when they came for campaigning before 2021,” she added.
Continuing her diatribe against PM Modi, Panja said, “You all know someone, I will not name, was growing a long beard and would not cut until the end of the elections. So, just by merely growing a beard you’ll not become Rabindranath Tagore.”
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Lastly, the minister denounced the BJP government’s move in Uttar Pradesh to eliminate content on Rabindranath Tagore. “You are removing Tagore from children’s textbooks and here you are offering garlands,” Panja said.
Reacting to Shashi Panja’s remark, BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said: “Why are they refraining from using the name of PM Modi? Do they fear that when their chief (Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee) will go begging for money unable to explain the funds due to all the corruption, they will be shunned?”
“Dr Panja is talking about saffronisation. Does it suit them while the party leaders are incarcerated for allegedly being related to the multicrore education/recruitment scam? Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants to become the Vice-Chancellor of the state universities, I want to ask, what qualification she has to hold that post. The CM has a Ph.D. degree from an institution that doesn’t even exist. This talk does not suit a government that put up banners supporting the chief minister, and her nephew’s (Abhishek Banerjee) picture on top and Rabindranath Tagore’s below them,” she said.
About Amit Shah’s 2021 gaffe, Paul said: “Allow me to ask: When did Tagore break Mahatma Gandhiji’s fast by feeding him fruit juice? When did Tagore meet Shakespeare? These are things the CM must clarify.”
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