Desperately needing an issue in the face of massive electoral losses at the hands of the BJP the Trinamool Congress tended to get one even as the party on Thursday erupted against a Twitter remark of Meghalaya Governor Tathagato Roy for his “demeaning and denigrating reference to Bengali youth: the girls and the boys.”
The TMC leaders reacted with MP Kakoli Ghoshdastidar and Minister Shashi Panja staging a dharna at Hazra Road from where they vowed to “expose the true face of the BJP and demanded Governor’s recall.”
The immediate issue of the outrage was a controversial post by Roy who in his bid to support making Hindi a compulsory language in the States attacked the Bengal intelligentsia for opposing the Centre’s move to do so.
Attacking the Bengal civil society who reportedly boasted of the State’s greatness flowing from Swami Vivekananda, Vidya Sagar, Tagore, Rammohan Roy etal the Governor and the former BJP leader asked, “What is the link between these great men and opposition to learning Hindi?... who will explain to them that the era of these stalwarts is long gone, and the greatness of Bengal is gone too. Now from Haryana to Kerala, Bengali boys are sweeping the floors in homes and Bengali girls are bar dancers in Mumbai which was unthinkable before.”
Roy was a BJP leader and president of Bengal State unit before he was sent to the Tripura and subsequently to Meghalaya with his stately assignment as a Governor.
The TMC is “planning continued movement demanding Roy’s removal from his currently assignment, party leaders said.