In a statement issued here Bhattacharjee said he had quoted lines from Rabindranath Tagore’s Bhasha O Chhanda which goes: “Kobi tabo monobhumi ramer janmasthan, Ayodhar cheye satya jeno” (O poet, please bear in mind that the birthplace of Ram is your own mind, which is more real than Ayodhya).
“A section of the media has taken it out of context,” he asserted.
He however offered no clarification on his questioning the secular credentials of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, author of Vande Mataramm and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who penned Devdas.
The Chief Minister had made observations on Lord Rama and the literary giants on Thursday while addressing a meeting to condemn the demolition of the Babri Masjid, organised by the State’s Sports and Youth Services department. In the meeting, he said he was amazed that some communal forces were bent on establishing a theory that Lord Rama built the bridge across the sea.
“Ram is a mythological character and the bridge is a natural phenomenon, which the geologists have already explained,” he said.
Some of the city’s intellectuals have taken exception to the CM’s remarks on Sarat and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
“I wonder how a writer like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay could become a member of Hindu Mahasabha.“I don’t know Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay could write a novel like Ananda Math,” Mr Bhattacherjee had observed during the meeting.
APOLOGISE: VHP TO BUDDHA
Kolkata, pti: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday demanded an apology from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for his remarks, despite his claim that the media had quoted him out of context.
‘’Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee must ask forgiveness from the Hindus. Does someone who is responsible for Nandigram and Singur have any business commenting on Lord Ram? He has no right to insult Hindus,’’ VHP International General Secretary Praveen Togadia told mediapersons after a rally of the Rameswaram Ramasethu Raksha Manch.
If Rama was imaginary, then Lord Buddha, after whom the Chief Minister was named, also did not exist and hence he should have his first name changed, Togadia said.
