KOLKATA: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh raked up yet another controversy on Saturday by taking a dig at the “uneducated, unaware and poor people” who are “paid and fed biryani with foreign funds” for continuing with protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Ghosh’s comment drew scathing criticism from TMC.

Talking about the role of the party in office in Bengal and other Opposition parties in the anti-CAA protests, Ghosh said: “The ruling party (of Bengal) and others have taken to the streets but they don’t have public support. Some uneducated, unaware, poor people have been lured with money and are being fed biryani with foreign funds to continue with the protests,” he said.

Trinamool senior and state parliamentary minister Partha Chatterjee said Ghosh has taken Bengal’s political narrative to a new low. “Is this how a party leader should speak? People are the best judge. But I believe that the BJP leader is deliberately targeting a particular community for narrow political ends,” Chatterjee said. Ghosh had made similar offensive comments earlier, saying that 50 lakh Muslims will be chased out of the country.

On Saturday, explaining the Shaheen Bagh-Park Circus narrative, the Bengal BJP president pointed out how they have become the must-reach destination for those opposing the NDA move. “Park Circus has become a must-visit place for Brinda Karat and Chidambaram . They do not want to address others. Only burqa-clad women with children in their laps are their sole audience,” he added.

Ghosh also didn’t spare intellectuals and students participating in the countrywide protests, from Shaheen Bagh in Delhi to Park Circus in Kolkata. “These people are writing poems, asking people not to show papers. But you have seen during the Delhi assembly polls how the protesters flashed their voter ID cards,” he said.

