Bengali boys sweep floors in other states, girls dance in bars: Roy
New Delhi: Governor Tathagata Roy does it again!
The controversial head of the state has once again become the target of opposition parties over a tweet which said that Bengali boys were working as sweepers and the girls as bar dancers in other states while a certain section of people in West Bengal were opposing Hindi.
“While trying to oppose learning of Hindi, some Bengalis are offering two arguments…. First, the southern states are opposing. They should know that there is no serious opposition in the south, except in Tamil Nadu. They are making some empty noises only for political reasons”, Roy wrote in Bengali on his official Twitter handle.
The governor said Assam, Maharashtra and Odisha were also non-Hindi speaking states, but they did not oppose Hindi.
“The second argument is that Bengal is the land of Vidyasagar, Vivekananda, Rabindranath and Netaji. So why should Bengalis learn Hindi? I fail to understand the link between these four great men and learning Hindi. Who will explain to these people that the era of these stalwarts is long gone, major parts of Bengal have gone too. Now, from Haryana to Kerala, Bengali boys sweep the floors of houses and Bengali girls dance in Mumbai’s bars, which was unthinkable in the past,” he wrote on the micro-blogging website.
The tweet has also created huge controversy in West Bengal and its capital Kolkata.
Trinamool Congress party sources here said that the governor’s comments are simply shocking.
“All Indians have their right to choose their profession”, a statement from the party said.
“Nobody has any right to pass derogatory comments against any profession”, the party sources added.
Asked to comment on Roy’s tweets, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata, “One should control his tongue, let common sense prevail. It is not expected from a person who holds a constitutional post.”
A number of netizens criticised Roy claiming that he had insulted Bengali boys and girls, while many others supported his views.
The governor, who describes himself as a “Right-wing Hindu socio-political thinker, writer, ideologue” on his Twitter handle, is not new to controversy.
Roy’s appeal to people to “boycott everything Kashmiri” following the February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama had also created a furore.
Roy was pulled by then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh when his controversial tweet on Kashmir created huge controversy all over the country.
The opposition Congress party in Meghalaya had even gone to the extent of boycotting his customary speech in the Assembly. (With PTI inputs)