A video featuring BJP MLA from Barrackpore, Koustav Bagchi, pressuring a Muslim woman to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ in a government-organised programme for the newly launched women’s welfare scheme, Annapurna Yojna, has gone viral.
The incident took place on June 3, 2026, during the inaugural ceremony of BJP’s women’s welfare scheme, Annapurna Yojna, organised in Sukanta Sadan in Barrackpore, an event attended by Bagchi. A video circulating on social media captures the MLA engaging with a Muslim woman seated in the front row of the auditorium.
In a seemingly light-hearted tone, Bagchi asks the woman, BJP desh theke tariye dicche na toh? (“The BJP is not driving you out of the country, is it?”). He then follows up by asking, “Is BJP good or bad?”
As the woman in question replies in her feeble voice, Bagchi demands, “BJP is giving Rs 3000; therefore, you have to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’” and then keeps coercing the woman to chant ‘Jai’ as he said, ‘Bharat Mata ki’.
Surrounded by a crowd and visibly under pressure, she said, “Jai”, after being repeatedly prompted. But Bagchi did not stop there; he thereafter asked her to chant ‘Vande Mataram’. He instructed, “Now say, ‘Vande Mataram’”. The woman succumbed and said very softly, putting her head down, “Vande Mataram”.
Bagchi said, “One has to say this. We are Indians. We have to behave like one”.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.
