Netaji comment row: Bengal govt withdraws Banga Bibhushan award from BJP MP

The move came less than 24 hours after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari directed the police to take stringent action, including arrests, against those making derogatory remarks about Netaji

The BJP government in West Bengal on Thursday withdrew and annulled Banga Bibhushan, the state's highest civilian award, previously bestowed upon the party's Rajya Sabha MP Nagendranath Roy aka Ananta Maharaj, in the wake of his alleged derogatory remarks about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. 

Citing subsequent facts and circumstances, a government order said retaining the honour was inconsistent with its dignity, prestige and purpose, and that its revocation came into effect immediately.

  The move came less than a day after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari directed the police to take stringent action, including arrests, against those making derogatory remarks about Netaji on social media, and said the law would apply equally to MPs, MLAs and government officials.

 

  Adhikari's direction to the police came days after Ananta Maharaj described Netaji as a "war criminal" and questioned his leadership and the role of the Azad Hind Fauj in India's freedom struggle. Roy hails from Cooch Behar in the northern part of the state and is a leader of the Rajbanshi community.

  Claiming that Netaji "did not have the capability to organise and raise an army like the Azad Hind Fauj", Roy had said that the army was actually a unit of British-Indian soldiers handed over by Germany and that Bose had "misused the INA".

  The award revocation move, in the aftermath of the derogatory remarks made against Netaji, came amid the state government taking down 108 social media posts in connection with the row.

  Around six FIRs were registered across the state since Wednesday and one person was arrested from the Islampur area of Uttar Dinajpur district in this connection, police said.

  Roy was bestowed with the honour by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee on February 21 this year during an International Mother Language Day ceremony in Kolkata.

  The MP, an outspoken critic of the SIR of electoral rolls which he believed was an attempt to disenfranchise the Rajbanshis, was felicitated with the award for his "efforts towards the socio-economic development" of the community.

  "Subsequent to the conferment of the honour, certain facts and circumstances which have arisen/subsequently come to the notice of the Government are considered to be of such nature and seriousness as to raise a question as to the continued retention of the aforesaid honour by Shri Nagendra Roy alias Ananta Maharaj and as to whether such continued retention is consistent with the dignity, presitige and purpose of the honour," the annulment order of the state Information and Cultural Affairs Department said.

  The award is given in recognition of distinguished and exemplary contribution to the state and its people and carries with it a high degree of dignity and prestige, the government statement said.

  The order, though, did not specifically mention the particular offence committed by Roy that warranted the annulment of the honour.

  Interestingly, Roy stuck to his ground on Thursday, saying his observations about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were matters of public record.

  "Whatever I have said about Netaji is not my words. It's officially documented and is there in the national archives for all to see. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of the country at the time. Whether those documents are true or false, it is up to the Congress to answer," he told reporters in Parliament.

  Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta had dismissed Roy's comments on Netaji and called the MP a "lunatic person".

Dasgupta said that Ananta Maharaj's knowledge of history was "worse than my knowledge of nuclear physics".

  Besides triggering embarrassment within the BJP, which had elevated him to Parliament, Roy's remarks sparked intense public backlash, widespread political outrage, and protests led by figures like former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who took to the streets at the Shyambazar five-point crossing in north Kolkata at the base of the landmark Netaji statue.