Bengal BJP leader, Meghalaya guv exchange barbs on Twitter

KOLKATA: West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose on Monday said that the party’s ideological founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee seeking partition of Bengal in 1947 was a “historic blunder”.

Bose’s comments on Mookerjee came as a reply to a tweet by Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy. Roy criticised Bose for the tweets attacking Mookerjee.

Mookerjee, BJP’s biggest icon, is considered the creator of West Bengal. “With due respects to @tathagata2, I have my own principles & ideology- I don’t parrot anybody’s theory! Problems faced today is due to partition of Bengal & India. Bengal should have remained United, Dr Syamwould aprasad Mookerjee had his contribution, but was wrong dividing Bengal,” tweeted Bose in a reply to Roy. Irked by Bose’s response, Roy tweeted “While being a state vice-president of an all-India party and flaunting the party’s name in your twitter handle, how can you have your own “principles and ideology” and criticise the party’s founder?...” “... I

SPEAKING TO HT OVER PHONE, BOSE STOOD BY HIS COMMENTS AND SAID HE CONSIDERED MOOKERJEE COMMUNAL

fight communal forces to keep the nation United with the spirit of Bharat. Jai Hind!” Bose wrote in a separate tweet. Roy in a separate tweet wrote, “@Chandrabosebjp has been called a stupid joker for advocating United Bengal, totally against the tenets of his party... All he can do is to parrot his ancestry.”

BJP Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh refused to give Bose any importance. “...The party has simply nothing to speak on his [Bose’s] remarks.”

Speaking to HT over phone, Bose stood by his comments and added that he considered Mookerjee communal.