‘Ghoshbag’: BJP’s rabble rouser in West Bengal leads the party’s charge  

People call him a loudmouth, a gasbag and a loose cannon. But he has served the BJP in Bengal well. Mocked by many for his outrageous statements, he has been given a long rope by BJP

‘Ghoshbag’: BJP’s rabble rouser in West Bengal leads the party’s charge  
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Rahul Gul

In the West Bengal countryside, he is said to be a big draw. People gather to hear his Mithun Chakrabarty-esque dialogues (We will beat you here and the body will land at the crematorium) and while BJP leaders squirm in embarrassment, there is apparently a method in his rants. BJP insiders claim that complaints went up to Mohan Bhagwat and Amit Shah, who summoned the man to explain his brazenly violent rhetoric. But they were satisfied with the explanation that he was doing what he was doing to build up and enthuse supporters on the ground and attract the disgruntled and the dissidents in All India Trinamul Congress(AITC).

He is the tough talking state president of the BJP in Bengal. A former RSS Pracharak, Dilip Ghosh, MP, has come a long way in the last six years. Handpicked to lead BJP’s charge in the state, his rabble-rousing skill has got better and better and the Member of Parliament has done well for himself. In his leisure time the former ‘Pracharak’ now plays golf. Golf clubs are clearly good places to meet the ‘ Bhadralok’ and industry barons, to relax and to strategise.

The BJP strongman, however, is often ridiculed for the statements he makes. Disparaging Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen was one of his earliest feats! Prizes and international acclaim, he had famously suggested, could be paid for and insinuated that the Nobel Laureate and others of his ilk had little clue about the economy. His comment did get into newspapers but was dismissed with a laugh.

But Ghosh has not been deterred. A few weeks ago,when another BJP strongman Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Bengal, the party mistook the statue of a tribal hunter for that of Birsa Munda, the Adivasi freedom fighter from Ranchi who died in jail in British custody. Shah paid his tributes to Birla Munda and garlanded the statue. But soon it was pointed out that the statue was not that of the freedom fighter. A few tribal organisations voiced their disappointment; some scoffed at BJP’s poor research and fieldwork and a few declared that it was an insult to Adivasis.

Arguably, an apology would have worked better. But Ghosh being Ghosh, he sternly declared that since the statue had been garlanded by Amit Shah, it would be known henceforth as that of Birsa Munda! Addressing a press conference, shown on TV, the BJP chief said, “We paid respect to a statue thinking it was Birsa Munda’s. Even if it isn’t, as the HM has garlanded that statue, it’s Birsa Munda’s statue from now on. Everyone must agree to this.”

While the ‘Bhadralok’ laugh at him in Bengal, as they did at Mamata Banerjee, BJP has been happy to keep the reins of the state unit in his hands. While within the BJP there are voices that feel Ghosh’s statements are often cringeworthy and crass and while political opponents keep refusing to dignify his outrageous statements with a response, the irrepressible man has never shied away from making statements that are lapped up by people and the media.

When film stars and artistes in Bengal protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), among them Soumitra Chatterjee who passed away last Sunday, Ghosh reacted by saying acidly, “They don’t want to show their papers, eh? Soon they will not be able to show their face”.Though the reaction was less rabid than another BJP hothead in the state, Soumitra Khan, who called anti-CAA protestors Mamata Banerjee’s ‘dogs’, the BJP chief’s words came out as sounding far more menacing.

He has never shied away from holding out threats; and one of his contributions acknowledged by the BJP is to build up a cadre which can retaliate and respond to political violence with violence. Others of course blame the BJP for initiating violence, for polarising the society and engineering riots.


Earlier this month, November 8 to be precise, while addressing party workers in Haldia, Ghosh did not mince his words. “I am telling Mamata Banerjee’s people who indulge in mischief to correct themselves within six months or else their hands, legs, ribs and heads will be broken. You will have to go to hospital before being able to go home. If they do not heed the warning, then they will be sent to the crematorium,” he was reported to have said. Nobody was surprised.

Threats roll out of his mouth easily enough. Unlike the Sanskrit spewing image of RSS Pracharaks, Ghosh is built of sterner stuff. He often warns the state police, asking them not to side with the party in power. “In a month, Amit Shah will break the teeth of the state police,” said Ghosh recently.

The memory of the CBI and the ED hounding Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, among the favourite police officers of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee then, is still fresh in memory for people to dismiss the threat lightly.

He is also not averse to saying what is otherwise deemed as politically inappropriate. In a snide reference to Mamata Banerjee’s 2011 slogan of ‘Bodla Noy, Bodol Chai’ (we need change, not revenge), Ghosh shared a poster on his Facebook page that had a picture of him with the slogan — ‘BodlaoHobey, Bodol-o Hobey’ (There will be change as well as revenge).

More than a hundred of our party workers were killed in the last few years. When we are voted to power, we will take revenge against these anti-socials and corrupt officials, otherwise, people will not forgive us. We believe in paying back in the same coin,” Ghosh said while justifying his social media post.

Many scoff at his seemingly outrageous statements including one in which he claimed that cow-milk has traces of gold. “Desi cows have a hump on their back. Foreign breeds do not have humps and their backs are plain like that of a buffalo. The hump has ‘Swarna Nari’. When sunlight falls on the hump, it produces gold. That is why the milk of the desi cow is yellowish or lightly golden. It contains gold…”

But undeterred, Ghosh has been championing the cause of cow-urine as a curative drink to cure COVID. “If I talk about cows, people fall sick. I tell them a donkey will not understand the worth of cow. This is India, the land of Lord Krishna and here cows are God that we worship. We will have cow urine to stay healthy,”he declared at a ‘Chai pe Charcha’ in Durgapur.

In September, Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic was ‘over’ and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was forcefully imposing lockdowns to prevent BJP public meetings ahead of the Assembly elections next year. Addressing a packed rally in Hooghly, the BJP leader said: “Corona has left. Didi is only putting up a show and enforcing lockdowns to ensure the BJP cannot hold any rallies. No one can stop us.”


As BJP makes a determined bid to wrest West Bengal in the Assembly election next year, Ghosh has proved his detractors, who believed he was of no consequence, wrong.

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