The BJP leader’s blunder over Matangini Hazra gives Trinamool a new handle

Even before the controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay while Bankim da has passed away, a fresh row has broken out over another Bharatiya Janata Party leader calling freedom fighter Matangini. Hazra, a Muslim.

During a debate in Parliament, BJP MP Dinesh Sharma had said that despite being a Muslim, Matangini Hazra had raised the slogan Vande Mataram. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue on Thursday (December 11, 2025) and said that the BJP leaders know nothing about West Bengal.

“Yesterday a BJP leader said Matangini Hazra was a Muslim. So are you [BJP] do you even know Bengal?” Ms. Banerjee said. The Chief Minister alleged that by calling ‘Khudiram Bose a terrorist’, the BJP leaders are calling Raja Ram Mohan Roy a ‘British agent’.

“Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay, who wrote Vande Mataram, is called ‘Bankim Da’. As if [BJP] shares tea with him. Master Da Surya Sen is called Master,” the Trinamool Congress president said, referring to the Prime Minister’s comment in which he called the Vande Mataram writer “Bamkin da”.

Matangini Hazra, a 73-year-old woman from Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, had become a symbol of resistance to British rule when she led thousands of protesters and died with the Indian flag in her hands during the Quit India movement in September 1942.

The Trinamool Congress also took to social media and said that @BJP4India has finally “admitted what Bengalis have always known: they don’t know our history, they don’t respect our icons, and they certainly can’t pronounce the names of our martyrs”.

Criticizing Dinesh Sharma, who was deputy chief minister of the Uttar Pradesh Trinamool Congress, he said “shows that political rank does not equal knowledge”.

“Their MP, Dinesh Sharma, stood in Parliament and butchered the name of Matangini Hazra, exposing the chronic, deep-seated distance between the BJP and Bengal in a single embarrassing moment. This is what happens when Bangla Birodhi Bohiragotos try to act as guardians of patriotism,” the Trinamool Congress said.

The development provided an opportunity for the Trinamool Congress to call the BJP leaders “Bohiragotos (outsiders)”, a term the Trinamool has been using against the BJP since 2021. “Bohiragotos who cannot even pronounce the names of our martyrs have no right to lecture us on patriotism,” the Trinamool said.