Bangla anthem row: Dev terms BJP’s reaction ‘anti-Bengali’ & ‘communal’

Silchar: Weighing in on the latest political controversy in Assam over the singing of Bangladesh’s national anthem by a Congress leader in Sribhumi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev on Friday termed BJP’s reaction to the incident “anti-Bengali” and “communal.”

The row, which began after senior leader Bidhu Bhushan Das sang two lines from Rabindranath Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla” during a Congress Seva Dal meeting, earlier this week, saw BJP criticise the act as an “insult” and accuse Congress of showing “affinity for Bangladesh.”




Subsequently, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma directed the police to file treason charges against Sribhumi district Congress members, calling it a “serious breach.”

“Tagore’s works belong to the entire subcontinent, not to one country,” Dev said in a statement. “Branding the recitation of a Tagore song as anti-national only exposes BJP’s deep-rooted prejudice against the Bengali community,” Dev said.

While Congress members have defended Das, clarifying that the song predates Bangladesh’s independence and symbolizes unity and resistance to the 1905 partition of Bengal, Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi accused BJP of “ignorance” of Tagore’s legacy and “disrespecting Bengali culture.”

Amid the row, Dev’s earlier statements against Himanta’s alleged “anti-Bengali” rhetoric, too, have resurfaced on social media, leading to tension in Barak Valley, where Bengali is the dominant language.