A fresh row has kicked up between the Trinamool Congress and the Centre with the party MP, Mahua Moitra alleging that the portrait unveiled by President Ramnath Kovind in Rashtrapati Bhawan on the occasion of the 124th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was not actually of him but of an actor, Prosenjit Chatterjee, who had played his role in his biopic, Gumnami.
However, the government on Monday countered her claim by stating that the photo is originally of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and was painted by Paresh Maity. The unveiling of the painting has started a debate in social media over the originality of the portrait.
Meanwhile, Mahua Moitra has through a tweet also criticised President Kovind for donating Rs five lakh for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
The latest controversy followed a verbal duel between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over the slogan Jai Hind and Jai Shri Ram at an event in Victoria Memorial in Kolkata on Jan 23. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee abruptly ended her brief speech in protest over the raising of the slogan Jai Shri Ram and Modi, Modi when the function was actually a government event organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Netaji. She ended her speech with the slogan Jai Hind, Jai Bangla. Perhaps this prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to begin his speech with Jai Hind, Jai Hind, Jai Hind.
The Jai Hind slogan was actually
adopted by Indian National Army of Netaji in 1941 at the recommendation of the
latter’s secretary and interpreter Maj. Zainul Abideen Hasan, who was studying
engineering in Germany.Both the parties are trying
to make political capital out of. However, the Congress and the Left Front,
other main opposition parties in West Bengal, appear to be siding with the
Trinamool Congress over this issue leaving the BJP alone.
