Rajbanshi leader vouches for Pramanik's Indian citizenship

SNS, SILIGURI, 19 JULY 21 : As Trinamul Congress MPs prevented Prime Minister Narendra Modi from introducing newly-inducted Cabinet ministers in the Parliament today and claimed that Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik was a Bangladeshi national, a Rajbanshi leader in North Bengal, Ananta Maharaj, has claimed that Mr Pramanik is very much an Indian and that the allegations and the controversy surrounding his citizenship was baseless.

Notably, Member of Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Shekhar Roy had raised the issue in Parliament and said: "Minister of State for Home Affairs is reportedly a Bangladeshi national."

Addressing the Press, TMC MP Derek O'Brien, without naming Mr Pramanik, also said the MoS for Home Affairs was a Bangladesh national. "A non-Indian cannot be a minister or minister of state," Mr O'Brien said.

On the other hand, close associates of Mr Pramanik have circulated a video clip in which Ananta Maharaj has claimed that the Coach Behar MP was born at Bhyataguri in Cooch Behar.

"Nisith was born at Bhyataguri. I know his father and mother. I am a resident of Gosainmari. We are residents of the same Assembly constituency. Allegation against Pramanik is baseless. He is a Rajbanshi. The attempt to brand Nisith Pramanik is humiliation of the Rajbanshi community," he said.

"It is a conspiracy, as since Independence this is the first time a Rajbanshi person has become the Union Minister of State. We are proud of him as he is the son of a Rajbanshi. We are grateful to the lndian government," Ananta Maharaj added.

Notably, Ananta Maharaj. who is very close to the BJP and its leadership, keeps control of the Rajbanshi community. Though another Rajbanshi leader, Banshibadan Barman, is close to the Trinamul Congress, the TMC leadership had been "trying to take Ananta Maharaj into confidence politically," sources said.

Sources added that TMC leaders have already met Ananta Maharaj, but failed to take him into confidence.

Political observers here believe that a maximum number of Rajbanshi people in Cooch Behar as well as in this region had extended support to the BJP ever since the Lok Sabha elections to the last Assembly polls.

On the other hand, addressing the Press, BJP MLA from Natabari, Mihir Goswami, today also claimed that Mr Pramanik was an Indian by birth.

'All this is nothing but a conspiracy to tarnish the image of the Rajbanshi community," he said