Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy has once again stoked controversy by asking if it was appropriate for people of West Bengal to be supporters of Kolkata’s famous East Bengal Football Club, which was celebrating its centenary this year.
“East Bengal Athletic Club (basically soccer) is celebrating its centenary. Has it struck its office-bearers or any of its supporters why they are supporting East Bengal while sitting in West Bengal?” Roy asked on his official Twitter handle.
The tweet raised a storm in Kolkata and the rest of Bengal with supporters of East Bengal Football Club and his arch rival, Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, asserting how they comprise an integral part of the state’s culture and history.
East Bengal FC Assistant Secretary Shantiranjan Dasgupta told Hindustan Times, “East Bengal was founded in 1920, decades before the birth of Bangladesh, which was earlier known as East Bengal.”
“Roy doesn’t know the history and should refrain from making such remarks,” Dasgupta retorted.
To the sharp criticism that he faced for his first tweet, Roy said it was due to “lack of understanding” and tweeted, “The fact that I support East Bengal while sitting in West Bengal should constantly remind me that we were driven out because of our religion.”
Dipendu Biswas, former India striker who played for East Bengal in 1998-99; 2001 to 2004; 2007 to 2010, told the newspaper, “The gentleman who said this may be way more qualified academically than many, but I am not sure he has a clear understanding of how the mind of a football supporter works. East Bengal is an identity, it is beyond geography. When I was young and playing football for fun, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting were institutions you dreamt of representing.”
“It was never about where East Bengal was located. It was about wanting to be part of an elite football institution,” Biswas added.
This wasn’t the Governor’s first gaffe. Roy, who describes himself as “right-wing Hindu socio-political thinker, writer, ideologue”, has on many occasions in the past earned the ire of the Twitterati by expressing his opinion on the microblogging platform on an array of social issues.
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