NEW DELHI: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in poll-bound West Bengal mocked Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya after he mispronounced the name of Kolkata-based football club Mohun Bagan during a press conference.In the clip, Mandaviya was seen struggling to pronounce “Mohun Bagan” correctly, eventually uttering a word that sounded like “baigan”, the Hindi term for eggplant. The mispronunciation quickly became the subject of online trolling.West Bengal’s ruling party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Wednesday also reacted to the clip, using it to mock the Union minister and point out the error in his pronunciation.“The Union Sports Minister has, once again, revealed the deep-seated contempt the BJP harbors towards Bengal. He mangled the names of our most revered football institutions, referring to the legendary Mohun Bagan as “Mohan baigan” and the iconic East Bengal as “East baigan”.The party further wrote: “For Bengalis, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are symbols of identity and pride. We have lived and breathed this beautiful game for over a century, celebrating victories with the same fervor as festival festivals and mourning defeats as personal loss.”Accusing the rival BJP of viewing Bengal through the “lens of Bangla-Birodhi arrogance”, the TMC claimed that for the saffron party, anything associated with Bengal “merits only mockery and dismissal.”“Yet, those who view Bengal through the lens of Bangla-Birodhi arrogance cannot even extend the basic courtesy of pronouncing these sacred names correctly. Why would they? In their eyes, anything associated with Bengal merits only mockery and dismissal,” the TMC wrote on X.Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said that the Indian Super League (ISL) will start from February 14. The minister also noted that all 14 clubs have agreed to play the ISL this season.“We have decided that the ISL will start on February 14, Saturday, and all of our clubs will participate in it,” Mansukh Mandaviya told the reporters.“In the country, football has progressed. In football, the country performs well. Through the League, the country gets good players. With this aim, the ISL league will be held,” he added.
