President Ramnath Kovind inaugurated a portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of the great freedom fighter’s birth anniversary on the 23rd of January. The President of India paid homage to the sacrifices of the legendary stalwart, however, it led to a ridiculous controversy. Prominent ‘journalists’ and politicians started claiming that the portrait was that of Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee who had played the character in a movie.
President Kovind unveils the portrait of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary celebrations. pic.twitter.com/Y3BnylwA8X
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) January 23, 2021
Barkha Dutt, former NDTV ‘journalist’, said, “I wish this were a headline from the Onion. I had to look twice to make sure it had actually happened. How utterly embarrassing”.
One Adil Hossain appears to have played a prominent role in spreading the claim that the portrait inaugurated by President Kovind was, in fact, Prosenjit Chatterjee. He said, “President of India unveils the official portrait of, yes believe me, of actor Prasenjit Chatterjee (Bumbada) and not Netaji at the Rashtrapati bhavan. Bumbada acted as Netaji in Srijit Mukherjee directed film Gumnaami. Hail the casting”.
Another user, @Joydas, popular in liberal circles, claimed the same thing. He urged people to focus on the portrait’s eyes.
Mahua Moitra, the TMC MP who fancies herself as the desi version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was quick to jump into the situation as well.
When all his comrades had jumped in, how could Sidharth Bhatia, the founder-editor of the far-left propaganda portal The Wire, be far behind?
Rohini Singh, too, participated in the charade, as she often does. She did not forget to take a jib at Kangana Ranaut as well.
Sagarika Ghose went to the extent of demanding that the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose be removed claiming that it was Prosenjit Chatterjee.
Another propagandist, Swati Chaturvedi, was also part of the fracas.
Was it really Prosenjit Chatterjee in the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose?
Thus, we arrive at a pertinent question here. Was it really the portrait of Prosenjit Chatterjee as is being claimed or is it propaganda directed at hurting BJP’s electoral prospects ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Elections?
First and foremost, it is abundantly clear at the first glance itself that it could not be Prosenjit Chatterjee who played the character in a movie. The differences are so great that it compels one to ask if it was indeed an innocent mistake on the part of clowns or part of a political agenda.
Chandra Kumar Bose, the grand-nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, had shared a photograph of the great leader in January 2020 which makes it abundantly clear that the portrait inaugurated by President Kovind is, in fact, that of Netaji himself.
Now it has come to light that it was the same photograph on which by a Bengali painter of repute and Padma Shri Awardee Paresh Maity based his portrait on. His signature is visible at the bottom right corner of the portrait.
Thus, the similarity between the photograph of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose shared by his grand-nephew and the work of Paresh Maity is more than evident when a comparison is made. Therefore, claims that it is actually Prosenjit Chatterjee in the portrait inaugurated by President Kovind can be summarily rejected.
