Display picture shows TMC-BJP link: Rivals - Apart from Nehru, Gaffar Khan and Azad, another important freedom fighter whose image was missing from the collage was Ashfaqulla Khan

Apart from Nehru, Gaffar Khan and Azad, another important freedom fighter whose image was missing from the collage was Ashfaqulla Khan

Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee.: File photo

Arkamoy Datta Majumdar   |   TT  | Calcutta   |   15.08.22 : The conspicuous absence of several distinguished luminaries of the Independence movements such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad from a collage of freedom fighters that Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamul Congress and its leaders have been putting up as the display picture on their social media platforms has drawn flak from non-BJP Opposition parties in Bengal.

Both the CPM and the Congress said the omission of the pictures of the first prime minister and several eminent Muslim leaders was a testament to their longstanding allegations that Trinamul secretly operated under instructions from the RSS and worked in connivance with the BJP.

“Investigations are proving that everyone in Trinamul is a thief. Mamata’s image has been smeared. To save her face, she has put up a picture of patriots. But even there, she hasn’t been able to come out of the shadow of the RSS and the BJP,” said CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty.

Pandit Nehru has repeatedly been targeted and criticised by the saffron ecosystem. “The disrespect towards Nehru is a saffron agenda. Trinamul has followed the line. Similarly, it has disrespected Muslim patriots to please the RSS,” Chakraborty said.

According to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, the collage used by the chief minister and her party was a perfect example to prove that Trinamul and the BJP were the two sides of the same coin.

“We have said this repeatedly. Trinamul and the BJP are ideological siblings,” he said.

Apart from Nehru, Gaffar Khan and Azad, another important freedom fighter whose image was missing from the collage was Ashfaqulla Khan. However his companions Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad — whom the Sangh parivar has been trying to appropriate — have found place in the ensemble.All Trinamul leaders and the party’s social media handles put up this collage as their display pictures. Trinamul’s Dum Dum MP Saugata Roy sought to downplay the controversy. “Several icons are present in the image. If Ashfaqulla Khan or the Frontier Gandhi were there, it would have been good. But their absence isn’t such a big issue,” Roy said.

When reminded that the ensemble had missed the nation’s first prime minister as well, Roy said: “I don’t know why he isn’t there. There may have been a slip.” BJP’s state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the CPM and the Congress were no longer relevant in the Bengal politics and what they said was irrelevant. Taking a dig at Trinamul for the misses, he said: “Their party believes every luminary is smaller in stature than Mamata.”