“Don’t Insult After Inviting”: Furious Mamata At Netaji Event After ‘Jai Shri Ram’ Slogans

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar were also present on the stage when this drama took place.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got furious at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial on Saturday evening when she stood up to address the event to honour legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his 124th birth anniversary, as she was interrupted with chants of “Jai Shri Ram“.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar were also present on the stage when this drama took place.

“Don’t insult me after calling me here. This is not a political programme. If you invite someone to a government programme, you should not insult them,” a visibly irked Banerjee told the crowd before cutting short her speech.

As seen in the video doing rounds, the crowd started shouting before Ms Banerjee spoke, forcing the organisers to repeatedly call for calm. When the Bengal Chief Minister finally got to speak, she tore into the crowd, asking them to display dignity. Ms Banerjee then thanked Prime Minister Modi for attending the event and walked off stage.

Prime Minister Modi, seemingly unperturbed by the events, spoke shortly afterwards and began by referring to the Chief Minister as “behen (sister) Mamata”. As the Prime Minister addressed the event, chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” were heard, but those of “Jai Shri Ram” seemed conspicuous by their absence.

Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien, tweeting the short clip of the incident, said you can’t teach dignity .

“dignity (noun) The state or quality of being worthy of honour and respect. You can’t teach ‘dignity’. Nor can you teach lumpens to be dignified. Here is a one-min video of what exactly happened today. Including the dignified response by @MamataOfficial ,” Mr O’Brien tweeted.