BJP’s mockery of Birbaha Hansda shows anti-Adiwasi mindset: Trinamool

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday launched a scathing attack on BJP for allegedly insulting its leader and Bengal minister Birbaha Hansda and making fun of her. The ruling party in Bengal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party (BJP) of being “anti-Adiwasi”.

Trinamool Congress alleged that BJP circulated the video of Hansda cutting her birthday cake and distributing it among her fellow colleagues of the delegation who were accompanying her in Tripura. “Because I am an adivasi woman, BJP leaders have now started making fun of me on social media,” Hansda alleged.

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh and Hansda stated that before departing for Tripura from Kolkata Airport, Hansda celebrated her birthday by cutting a cake, a simple and human gesture. But “Adivasi-Birodhi” BJP chose to weaponise that moment, circulating a video to humiliate her.

During a Press conference in Tripura, Ghosh and Hansda on Thursday slammed BJP Tripura and Agnimitra Paul, a BJP MLA in Bengal Assembly for insulting and making fun of Hansda.

In a social media post, Trinamool Congress alleged: “MODI AND BJP ARE ADIVASI BIRODHI…This is the same party whose Bengal LoP, @SuvenduWB, claimed that Tribal leaders like Birbaha Hansda and Debnath Hansda as “infants to be trodden underfoot.”

Such contempt is the ideological DNA of a party that refuses to respect tribal dignity.”

Ghosh demanded that the BJP leaders who allegedly insulted Hansda must apologise to her. “The least BJP can do is show contrition. They should publicly apologise to our minister and to the tribal communities whose honour they have besmirched. If they are incapable of such basic decency, the people will judge them accordingly,” Trinamool Congress leaders said.