Bengal, 6th November: Union Home Minister, Amit Shah visited Matua Community temple in Newtown and had lunch at one of the residences of Matua citizens. Matua women shower flowers at the time of Amit Shah’s entry to the temple.
He had lunch at Nabin Biswas’ house. He served comprises of delicious rice, roti, shukto, moong dal, cholar dal, panir, chatni and payes or kheer. All of these recipes are cooked by Nabin’s wife. The food shall have been served traditionally, on banana leaves and clay plates.
Suchandra Biswas, Wife of Nabin Biswas feels blessed to serve and cook food for Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders of the party.
“In today’s menu, we had Roti, Yellow Dal, Paneer, Plain Rice, Moong Dal, chutney, and Jaggery-flavored payasam. The Home Minister had come to my house and I served him my hand-cooked dishes. I feel proud of myself. He said the food was well prepared and he ate it with a lot of pleasure. He ate everything. More of Rotis and less rice. He ate a little dessert. He said he felt good coming here,” said Suchandra Biswas.
Nabin Biswas is glad that his daughter got the blessing from, Amit Shah.
“I am very happy that Amit Shah came to my place. He ate what my wife had made. He was pleased with it. He loved the payasam. He blessed my kid offering her some money. He said that my kid would shine in life. I thanked him for passing the CAA against the wanderers who have come here from East Bengal. He will do whatever he is capable of for the betterment of the Matua tribe. We are feeling very happy,” said Nabin Biswas.
The Matua community is one of the state’s largest Scheduled Caste populations that are concentrated in North and South 24 Parganas, they are spread across bordering districts like Nadia, Howrah, Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur, and Malda. They constitute 17.4 per cent of the total SC population and have a stronghold on more than 10 assembly seats in Nadia and north 24 Parganas districts. Thereby becoming a target for the saffron camps to consolidate their strength over the community.
During the Lok Sabha election last year, Narendra Modi too started his election campaign in Bengal by seeking blessings from Boro Maa Binapani Devi, who is a 100-year-old matriarch of the Matua community.
BJP has already used the refugee card pushing through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in parliament to meet the longstanding demand for permanent citizenship for Matua refugees. The party was quick to fix its misadventure about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal, which fuelled insecurity among the refugee community by harping on the newly passed CAA to protect them.
