GUWAHATI: Dimbeswar Das, a BJP MLA in Assam, has invited the wrath of his party as well as Opposition Congress by allegedly forcing an engineer to touch his feet as punishment for an “offence” he committed.
The fault of Jayanta Das, a junior engineer of a development block, was that he had asked the MLA’s driver to remove the lawmaker’s car from the main entrance of an official function. The MLA had gone to Kothiatoli in his constituency, Raha, in central Assam on Thursday to inaugurate a programme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
As his vehicle was causing inconvenience to people’s movement there, the engineer had asked the driver to park it elsewhere but he picked up a quarrel. Under attack, the MLA sought to give a clarification on Friday.
He claimed he had never asked the engineer to touch his feet. “The locals had told me about an altercation between him (the engineer) and my driver over the parking of my vehicle. So, I intervened and resolved the issue. But, later, when I was eating food, the engineer suddenly appeared from nowhere and touched my feet,” he told reporters at a hurriedly-convened press conference on Friday. The Congress as well as the BJP slammed the MLA. “We condemn his act.
This is a reflection of BJP’s feudal mindset. They want to rule the state with a capitalist mindset,” Congress spokesman Apurba Bhattacharya said. “The engineer is a state government employee who was forced to touch the MLA’s feet.
This is shame for the BJP which claims it is different from the Congress. They brag about their cultures. If this is their culture, we are sorry. The Congress cannot follow such culture,” Bhattacharya added. Red-faced, a fuming BJP discussed the matter within the party on Friday. “We’re sad and angry over what happened.
People don’t expect public leaders to behave like this. We are public servants and not the masters of people,” BJP MP, RP Sharma, said. “It is beyond the culture of BJP and RSS. The party will not tolerate such acts,” he said. Sharma added that the decision on disciplinary action, if any, would be taken by party president Ranjit Das. Das was not available for comments.