வங்காளத்தில் இருக்கும் மார்வாரிகளுக்கு எதிராக சிபிஎம் அமைச்சர் அப்துல் ரசாக் மொல்லா அவதூறு

மேற்குவங்காள அமைச்சர் அப்துல் ரசாக் மொல்லா மேற்கு வங்காளத்தில் இருக்கும் மார்வாரிகளுக்கு எதிராக அவதூறாக பேசியது கண்டனத்துக்குரியது என்று ராஜஸ்தான் முதல்வர் வசுந்தரா ராஜி கூறியுள்ளார்.

West Bengal rocked by outsider vs local debate
CNN-IBN
Published on Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 11:47, Updated at Sat, Feb 23, 2008 in Nation section
IT'S NOT DONE: Vasundhara Raje says West Bengal minister's comments on Marwaris are unfortunate.

Kolkata: The outsider versus local debate seems to be raging across more states than just Maharashtra. The Rajasthan government has hit back at the controversial comments made by a West Bengal minister against the Marwari community.


Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje says West Bengal Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah's comments on the Marwari community are unfortunate. At a function on Wednesday, Mollah had said Marwaris are bribing their way to success in business in West Bengal and ruining the state.


"I was listening to writer Buddhadev Guha's comment that Bengalis are lazy. But these non-Bengalis, especially Meros (Marwaris)... they are capturing Bengal not on the basis of their talent or intelligence. They are management masters. If they have a scheme, they remain prepared to manage 10 per cent of that scheme. They slip in that 10 per cent to wherever necessary and get the job done. Bengalis are still not habituated in this," Mollah had said.


The ruling Left Front promptly distanced itself from the minister's anti-Marwari outburst.


However, the community is up in arms. They burned an effigy of the minister at MG Road in Kolkata on Friday.







Mollah, however, apologised for making alleged derogatory remarks against the Marwari community after his party intervened.


"If anyone was hurt by my inadvertent remarks I regret it," Rezzak Mollah said on Friday.


Earlier in the day, the CPI-M had distanced itself from the controversial remarks made by Mollah made at a meeting of left-backed organisations to observe International Language

Day.


"The party does not subscribe to the reported remarks of Mollah about the Marwari community. The party does not have enmity with any community or language. If any community is hurt by such remarks we are sorry," Biman Bose, State Secretary, CPI-M, said in a statement issued in Kolkata on Friday.


The remarks had drawn protests from the All India Marwari Federation, which had demanded an apology from the minister.


(With inputs from PTI)