Amit Shah garlands 'wrong' Birsa Munda statue in Bankura

Kolkata: Union Home minister Amit Shah has stirred trouble during his two-day visit in the state after paying tributes to the wrong statue, mistaking it to be that of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda in Bakura on Thursday.

Shell-shocked over the incident, the Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal on Friday sprinkled Ganga water and purified the statue of Birsa Munda thereafter.

Shah, on the first day of his two-day tour in Bengal, on Thursday went to Bankura and on his way to Rabindra Bhavan to meet BJP party leaders and functionaries stopped on the road and garlanded the statue of a local hunter, mistaking him to be Birsa Munda. When the function was about to come to an end, some local leaders pointed out the goof-up and hurriedly arranged a photograph of Birsa Munda and placed it on the pedestal of the statue. Shah put flower petals to show his respect and left for the venue of the meeting.

However, this did not go down well with the tribals who worship Birsa Munda as their hero.

Criticising Shah, Nusrat Jahan, Trinamool Congress MP, said: "It was a blatant disregard to legendary Bengali icons." She said before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP workers had vandalised the statue of Vidyasagar. "BJP has no idea of Bengal's culture and tradition and the goof-up over garlanding a statue mistaking it to be that of Birsa Munda proves that beyond doubt."