Leadership qualities on display as flustered - BJP state boss blusters ‘Were you around (in 1510) to see it? What I am saying is right’
“What I am saying is right,” insisted BJP Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh on Sunday when reporters peppered him with questions on a temple visited by his party’s national president J.P. Nadda on Saturday.
Nadda had described the temple as the shrine where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had received his deeksha (initiation). Later, the temple authorities and some Katwa residents said the temple was built in 1839. Chaitanya had passed away at the age of 48 in 1534.
After a statue in Bankura was erroneously identified during Amit Shah’s visit in November as that of tribal demigod Birsa Munda, Ghosh had claimed that after the Union minister said so everyone had to accept it as fact.
On Sunday, Ghosh, who had gone with Nadda to Katwa and stayed there overnight, was seen in a video interacting with journalists.
The video offers a telling insight into how some leaders respond when inconvenient questions are asked.
In sharp contrast, BJP Katwa unit chief Krishna Ghosh had offered a more plausible explanation without losing his cool: a probable and very human miscommunication, because of which Nadda could not be debriefed that the temple he was visiting was not the one that was originally handpicked for him. It is believed that Chaitanya received deeksha at that temple, 10km away from the one Nadda visited, in 1510.
Excerpts from Ghosh’s interaction with multiple journalists follow:
Journalist: Yesterday, J.P. Nadda described a Radha-Govind temple as the deekshasthal (site of initiation) of Chaitanya. What do you have to say?
Ghosh (nodding): Everyone says Chaitanya went there.
Journalist: Chaitanya came to Gouranga Bari in Katwa town (10km away) and there is no link with that temple (that Nadda visited).
Ghosh (smiling): Chaitanya jonmechheyn char jaygay, erokom boley (Chaitanya was born in four different places, such things are said).
Journalist: But this temple (that Nadda visited) was set up 200 years ago and Chaitanya lived 500 years ago.
Ghosh: Yeah, so there is a notion there that Chaitanya visited the place.
Journalist: He (Chaitanya) did not visit Jagadanandapur and he was not initiated there. It is not an old enough temple and it is only about 200 years old.
Ghosh: It is the faith of local people that Chaitanya visited the place…. It is over, enough, done.
Journalist: No, Chaitanya did not go there… what will you say about it? Chaitanya did not go there, he was not initiated there.
Ghosh (losing his cool): Were you around (centuries ago) to see it?
Journalist: Huh? History has this to say…
Ghosh (aggressively): It is the faith of local people that he went there.
Journalist: No, that is not the faith of local people.
Ghosh: Are you from Katwa?
Journalist: Yes, I am.
Ghosh: Here are a thousand people from Katwa.
Journalist: But none of them will agree (with the BJP’s claim)... the temple, after all, is only 200-odd years old.
Ghosh: Your claim does not make it so. What I am saying is right.
Journalist: Is that so? What you are saying has to be correct?
Ghosh: Of course.
Journalist: He (Chaitanya) was not initiated at the Gouranga temple?
Ghosh (gesticulating): Go ask this to others.
BJP state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, refused to react, saying he was not aware of the developments.
Trinamul Congress vice-president and MP Saugata Roy said: “Arrogance is the best reply from fools and the ignorant. What better is to be expected of a Dilip Ghosh? They do not know history, nor science… anything they want, they will make up, declare in public, then defend shamelessly.”
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