BJP MP Dinesh Sharma. File | Photo credit: ANI
Even before the controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks about Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as Bankim da died down, a fresh row erupted over another Bharatiya Janata Party leader calling the freedom fighter Matangini. Hazra, Muslim.
BJP MP Dinesh Sharma, who participated in the debate in Parliament, said that despite being a Muslim, Matangini Hazra raised the Vande Mataram slogan. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (December 11, 2025) raised the issue and said that BJP leaders do not know anything about West Bengal.
“Yesterday a BJP leader said that Matangini Hazra was a Muslim. Do you (BJP) even know Bengal?” said Ms. Banerjee. The Chief Minister alleged that from calling ‘Khudiram Bose a terrorist’, BJP leaders called Raja Ram Mohan Roy a ‘British agent’.
“Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay who wrote Vande Mataram is called ‘Bankim Da’. It’s like he (BJP) is sharing tea with him. Master Da Surya Sen is called Master,” the Trinamool Congress president said, referring to the Prime Minister’s remark where he called writer Vande Mataram ‘Bamkin da’.
Matangini Hazra, a 73-year-old woman from Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal, became a symbol of defiance against British rule when she led thousands of protesters and died with the Indian flag in her hands during the Quit India movement in September 1942.
The Trinamool Congress also took to social media to say that @BJP4India has finally “admitted what Bengal has always known: they don’t know our history, they don’t respect our icons and they certainly can’t pronounce the names of our martyrs”.
The criticism of Dinesh Sharma, who was the deputy chief minister of the Uttar Pradesh Trinamool Congress, “shows that political rank does not equal knowledge”.
“Their MP Dinesh Sharma stood in Parliament and butchered the name of Matangini Hazra, exposing the BJP’s chronic, deep-seated disconnect with Bengal in a single, shameful moment. This is what happens when Bangla Birodhi Bohiragotos try to act as guardians of patriotism,” the Trinamool Congress said.
This development gave the Trinamool Congress an opportunity to call BJP leaders “Bohiragotos (outsiders)”, a term Trinamool has been using against the BJP since 2021. “Bohiragotos who cannot even pronounce the names of our martyrs have no right to lecture us on patriotism,” Trinamool said.
Published – 12 Dec 2025 02:20 IST
