‘Bow your head’: Mamata demands PM’s apology over ‘Bankim da’ remark

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly insulting Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay by referring to him as “Bankim da” in Parliament. Ms. Banerjee said that the remark by the Prime Minister is akin to disrespecting country’s history and freedom struggle.

“The person who wrote the national song was disrespected. You should bow your head and ask for forgiveness from the people. Yet you won’t be forgiven, because you have disrespected the country’s history and freedom struggle,” the Chief Minister said while addressing a public meeting in the State’s Cooch Behar district.

Participating in a discussion in Lok Sabha on 150 years of Vande Mataram, Prime Minister on Monday referred to the writer of the national song Vande Mataram as “Bankim da”. After intervention by TMC MP Sougata Roy, Mr. Modi switched to ‘Bankim Babu’, but the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has launched a scathing attack.

The development assumes significance before the upcoming Assembly poll in the State, especially with the TMC often dubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an outfit of “outsiders”.

‘Trivialising icons’

“This is what happens when outsiders who have no organic connection to Bengal’s intellectual tradition try to mimic reverence they have never learned to practice. They mispronounce, they trivialise, they reduce giants to gimmicks, and in the process, expose their utter contempt for what Bengal truly stands for,” the TMC posted on social media on Monday.