President Ram Nath Kovind unveiled Netaji's portrait on Saturday to mark his birth anniversary, named "Parakram Diwas" by the Centre. A post on his timeline has gone viral with users saying the portrait is not that of Netaji at all, that it is actually of Prosenjit Chatterjee, who played Netaji in the 2019 biopic "Gumnami".
BJP sources have rubbished the charge, asserting that the photo was provided by Netaji's family to famous Padma Shri award winning artist Paresh Maity, who painted the portrait. "The photo does not resemble Prosenjit at all. It is an unnecessary controversy," the sources said.
It is not clear yet which member or which branch of the family provided the photo. Paresh Maity, 56, is from Bengal's East Midnapore district and currently lives in Delhi.
Among those who ridiculed the portrait was Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who tweeted: "After donating ₹ 5 lakhs to the Ram temple the President honours Netaji by unveiling a portrait of Prasenjit, the actor who played him in biopic God Save India (because this government certainly can't)." She has now deleted the tweet.
Several posts on Twitter made a similar claim.
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
This is unbelievably hilarious. The Portrait that President of India Unveiled, it is is of Actor Prosenjit who played role of Netaji (Look at Eyes). That’s like unveiling Portrait of Ajay Devgan as Bhagat Singh https://t.co/voRxerFmoU
— Joy (@Joydas) January 25, 2021
In his role as Netaji, Bengali movie star Prosenjit Chatterjee bears a striking resemblance to the renowned freedom icon in the 2019 film and he reportedly used prosthetics for his transformation. The claim that his portrait is up as Netaji's at Rashtrapati Bhavan has inspired several memes and jokes on Twitter, with people calling for the inauguration of a portrait of Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi and Vivek Oberoi as Narendra Modi.
Political fault lines. pic.twitter.com/oVWmMzeCKb
— Neelanjan Sircar (@NeelanjanSircar) January 25, 2021
BJP's social media chief Amit Malviya, in-charge of Bengal, posted a sharp rejoinder: " If the neo-Bengal experts are done making a fool of themselves, outraging over the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, unveiled by the President of India, let me remind them that all their misplaced activism won't be able to save Mamata Banerjee..."
If the neo-Bengal experts are done making a fool of themselves, outraging over the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, unveiled by the President of India, let me remind them that all their misplaced activism won’t be able to save Mamata Banerjee...
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 25, 2021
This is the latest twist to the tussle over Bengal's icons in the bitter lead-up to elections in the state in April-May.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Netaji's birth anniversary on Saturday, had refused to complete her speech after "Jai Sri Ram" slogans were raised by BJP supporters at a mega event at the iconic Victoria Memorial in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
