Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Bose criticised BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya for demanding that Sealdah railway station be renamed after Syama Prasad Mookerjee and argued that his "communal politics" contradicts West Bengal's inclusive and secular values.

While Mookerjee is respected as an educationist, he is also known as the "divider of Bengal", Bose said.

Bose, a former BJP state vice-president, made his remarks a day after Bhattacharya, the Rajya MP, appealed to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to rename Sealdah station after Syama Prasad Mookerjee in recognition of his efforts in helping refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during Partition.

“Syama Prasad Mookerjee was an educationist, he was a scholar. But as far as his politics and ideology are concerned, he was a very communal leader. He is known as the divider of Bengal. So Syama Prasad Mookerjee is honoured in Bengal as an educationist, not as a social reformer, not as a politician,” Bose said.

He added, “Changing the name of Sealdah station after Syama Prasad Mookerjee is against the ideology of Bengal, which is inclusive and secular.” Meanwhile, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh suggested that if Sealdah station is to be renamed, it should be in honour of Swami Vivekananda.

“When Swami Vivekananda returned from the US after delivering his historic speech at Chicago’s Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893, he arrived at Sealdah station, where the people of Calcutta welcomed him and organised a procession in his honour,” Ghosh said.

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