Kolkata: Triggering controversy yet again, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday dubbed Shaheen Bagh and Park Circus Maidan protesters “illiterate, unaware and poor.”
People have been holding a sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi and Park Circus Maidan in Kolkata against the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register.
He branded the women participating in the protest as “burqa-clad uneducated.” Midnapore BJP MP also alleged that the protesters are getting paid from “foreign funds”.
Moreover, he slammed Congress leader P. Chidambaram and CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat for supporting them.
“Some illiterate, unaware and poor people have been brought on the road. Courtesy to foreign funds, they are being paid money and fed biryani daily. The situation is similar from Shaheen Bagh to Park Circus,” Mr Ghosh told the BJP functionaries at the party's internal meeting in the city.
He further said, “I was surprised to learn that so many parties' national leaders, including Mr Chidambaram and Ms Karat, came here to give lectures. However, no one listened to them. Some uneducated burqa-clad women, who have been protesting with children on their laps, are the only audience they have.”
Taking a dig at Trinamul Congress supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, he said that BJP has many clean faces.
“Even two years ago many used to ask: who is the leader of the BJP? who is the face here? Those, who have only one face, show it everywhere,” the BJP MP observed sarcastically.
