KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday courted controversy by claiming that "uneducated men and women" are protesting at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Kolkata's Park Circus as they get money and biryani purchased with foreign funds.
Ghosh's comment came two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that controversial statements such as "Goli Maro" made by some BJP leaders at Shaheen Bagh could have contributed to the party's defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.
"Poor, uneducated men and women have been made to sit on roads. In return, they are receiving money every day. They are being fed biryani bought with foreign funds," Ghosh said while addressing a party meeting here.
"Be it Delhi's Shaheen Bagh or Kolkata's Park Circus, the picture is the same everywhere. People like Brinda Karat and P Chidambaram attend these gatherings. Some uneducated women with babies on their lap are sitting there. They are the only audience to them," the BJP MP added.
His comments drew sharp criticism from leaders of both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition CPM, who claimed that the BJP has started panicking over the ongoing protests against the CAA-NRC-NPR. "No person with minimum sense of ground reality can make such comments about these women," said CPM politburo member Mohammed Salim.
TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said such comments reflect the mindset of the saffron party. Ghosh on Saturday announced that Amit Shah is likely to be in the city on March 1 where he will be felicitated by the party for the passage of Citizen (Amendment) Act.