Bratya Basu under fire for comments that connect the action of the army to the PAH Operation of 1971

Minister of Western Bengaalse Education Bratya Basu led to a stir in the state assembly after comments that seemed to compare the dismantling of the Indian army of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) Protest phase with Operation Searchlight, the brutal performance launched in Bangladesh in 1971.

The minister made the comment during a debate about a motion in which attacks and atrocities against Bengal’s speaking people in various States registered by BJP were condemned.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the basu of insulting the Indian army. Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded that the comments were made from the assembly record. When the speaker ignored the question, BJP shouted Mla’s slogans from “Indian Army Zindabad” and walked out of the house. Adhikari was later suspended for his protest.

“Minister Bratya Basu compared yesterday’s dismantling of illegal structures by the Indian army with the actions of the Pakistani army in Bangladesh in 1971,” said Adhikari. “We demanded such a comparison. He can’t compare the two.”

Faced with the recoil, Basu gave a clarification and he insisted that his words were twisted. “I did not compare this with the Indian army,” he said. “I said that the way in which the Pakistani army attacked Bangladesh is very, very, very condemning. On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani army attacked Jagannath Dham and then Dhaka University, they shot the ordinary people. This is not a comparison.”

Outside the meeting, BJP’s former MP Arjun Singh escalated the rhetoric. “When I was in the meeting, I would have thrown Bratya Basu into the meeting and beat him up,” Singh said. “It’s not good to compare India with Bangladesh.”

While Basu claims that he convicted Pakistan’s actions, the opposition insists that the comments exceeded a line. The row has contributed to the already tense relationships between the government of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in Bengal, with the role of the Indian army becoming a flash point in political sparrings.

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