'Mohun Baigan': Trinamool slams Mansukh Mandaviya for mispronouncing iconic team's name

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has launched a blistering attack on Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya after a video of him mispronouncing the names of Kolkata’s legendary football clubs went viral. During a recent press conference, the minister struggled with the phonetics of "Mohun Bagan," eventually pronouncing it as "Mohan Baigan" (the Hindi word for eggplant). He similarly fumbled the name of "East Bengal," leading to widespread ridicule on social media platforms.

Reacting sharply to the clip on Wednesday, the TMC officially condemned the minister's error, labeling it a sign of "deep-seated contempt" the BJP harbors toward Bengal. The party stated that for Bengalis, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are not just football clubs but symbols of identity and heritage. They emphasized that the game of football is woven into the social fabric of the state, where victories are celebrated like festivals and defeats felt as personal losses.

The ruling party in West Bengal further accused the saffron party of viewing the state through a lens of "Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengal) arrogance." According to the TMC, the inability to extend the basic courtesy of pronouncing these "sacred names" correctly suggests that the BJP dismisses everything associated with Bengali pride. The social media handle of the party on X (formerly Twitter) was flooded with comments from football fans expressing their disappointment over the central leadership's lack of familiarity with Bengal's sporting icons.