‘Bangladeshis don’t even know poha’: Kailash Vijayvargiya’s remark about ‘strange eating habits’ sparks reactions

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', the uncooked version of the flattened rice or 'muri' that is not only eaten by people in Bengal but in other states as well.

By: Trends Desk

New Delhi | Updated: January 25, 2020 11:20 AM IST

6 min read

Many Bengalis highlighted that they mostly eat the uncooked version and not necessarily poha.

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 after BJP’s Kailash Vijayvargiya said that he suspected few labourers to be Bangladeshis as “they were eating only ‘poha’ (flattened rice)”.

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)”.

“I suspected these workers were residents of Bangladesh. Two days after I became suspicious, they stopped working at my house,” he added.

The statement quickly garnered a lot of attention online and got everyone talking. While most said Poha is a very popular breakfast dish and origin can be traced to Maharashtra, others argued it’s cheap and thus can be afforded by daily-wage labourers.

https://twitter.com/devduttmyth/status/1220533560802566144

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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’, 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.

https://twitter.com/BookLuster/status/1220559673092263936

https://twitter.com/SRoyChowdhury01/status/1220412445027655686

“I have not filed any police complaint yet. I only mentioned this incident to warn people,” he added.

Speaking at the seminar, Vijayvargiya also claimed that a Bangladeshi terrorist was keeping a watch on him for the last one and a half years.

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