All ‘poha’ eaters are Bangladeshis, says BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya

January 24: BJP’s Kailash Vijayvargiya made a controversial statement during a public meeting in support of CAA. The National General Secretary of the BJP said during the construction of a new room at his house recently, he found “eating habits” of some of the workers “strange” and thought they were Bangladeshis as “they were eating only `poha’ (flattened rice চিড়া)”.

This was said by Vijayvargiya at a seminar held in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Indore on Thursday. the BJP general secretary said: “There is some construction work going on at home. Outside, I saw some six-seven labourers sitting with one thali piled up with a huge amount of poha — maybe 10 plates — and eating. I asked, why are you eating poha? They did not answer because they could not speak Hindi. Then one man said they are Bengalis. I suspected something. I asked why they had been hired here. The answer was, they are cheap labour.”

Poha, the popular breakfast dish started to dominate Twitter trends in India on Friday and it left many baffled online. The humble dish took social media by storm. Many Bengalis highlighted that they mostly eat the uncooked version (চিড়া) and not necessarily poha. Now, poha is Maharashtrian for “flattened rice”, a dish where the rice is flattened into dry, light flakes. The flattened rice is usually cooked with turmeric, onions, tomatoes, nuts and other ingredients to make ‘kanda poha’, which is traditionally eaten all over Maharashtra.

“Halwa is auspicious, Poha is suspicious,” tweeted one such social media user. “If eating Poha , gets you a tag of being from Bangladesh as per Ch. Kailash Vijayvargiya then almost every guy from our Maharashtra does belong from Bangladesh whose morning doesn’t start without Poha and Chai,” tweeted another user.

Another user wrote, “So, According to BJP,  those who eat Poha are Bangladeshis???🤔 What next?? Boycott Poha?? 😂🤣😂🤣… “I wonder whether this man has heard of Krishna and Sudama …. and the story of the gift of poha,” wrote another on the twitter handle.

Many Bengalis clarified that they don’t even call the dish Poha and it’s definitely not a staple breakfast food in the state. However, they said, maybe the BJP leader meant ‘chire’ ( চিড়া), the uncooked version of the flattened rice or ‘muri’ that is not only eaten by people in Bengal but in other states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Assam as well. Many wondered if speaking Bengali outside West Bengal will now be considered as Bangladeshi too. Others slammed him for being ignorant about Bengali culture and called it ironic that he is also a central observer for West Bengal.