A student from West Bengal, Mustafizur Rahman, demanded apology from Union Minister of State Babul Supriyo after he said that he would send Rahman off to his “own country” after the latter had commented on a post on Supriyo’s official Facebook page. Rahman said that Supriyo had reacted that way due to the his Muslim name.
On December 26, Supriyo shared a post which condemned the tearing up of a copy of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by a student of Jadavpur University during the convocation recently.
In the post, Rahman had commented saying, “Babul da, how educated are you and your mentor Dilip Ghosh who extracts gold from cow milk?” Rahaman was referring to a remark made by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit president Dilip Ghosh in November where he had claimed that cow milk looks yellow as it contains gold. He had also said that the gold was produced within a blood vessel of the cow when sunlight falls on it.
Replying to Rahman’s comment, the minister said, “Let me send you back to your own country first, then I’ll send you the reply in a postcard.”
Rahman, who hails from Birbhum, has said in a recent video clip that he had all the documents needed to prove his identity as an Indian and alleged that Supriyo didn’t know how to respect Bengalis. He said that India is a secular country and people from different religions lived here. He has asked for an apology from Supriyo.
A local organisation, Jatiya Bangla Sammelan, said its members will approach Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with a letter signed by people opposing Supriyo’s comment. It will ask the Governor to forward the letter to the Centre letting them know that Supriyo’s comment has hurt the Bengali sentiment, a member of the organisation said.
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Babul Supriyo meanwhile, has refused to apologise. He said he was being sarcastic and “only fools” would not understand that. He claimed that his comment had nothing to do with Hindus and Muslims.
