Guwahati: Assam Cultural Affairs Minister Bimal Borah issued a statement on Monday alleging that the viral photo of him with the gamosa was taken one and a half years ago amid the growing controversy over an Assamese-Bangla paired gamosa.
While interacting with the media on the photo, he said, “Assamese gamosa will always remain as it is. By pairing it up with another community’s gamosa or giving it another structure or design will hurt the sentiments of Assamese community which is natural.”
He further said, “The photo making rounds on social media was taken one and a half years ago.”
The Assamese-Bangla paired gamosa was presented to guests including Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu by the Bangla Sahitya Sabha at its maiden state-level conference.
The gamosa controversy has been making headlines grabbing reactions from several people from Assamese community.
A picture of Bimal Borah grinning as he looked at the gamosa on his hands was also going viral on social media alongside the picture of Ranoj Pegu wearing the matching gamosa around his neck.
Ranoj Pegu clarified yesterday in response to the commotion.
He said, “At the first conference of Bangla Sahitya Sabha, they kept the photo of Rabindranath Tagore on one side while on the other side photo of Lakshminath Bezbaruah was seen. They identify themselves as Bengali-speaking Assam people. They honoured me with the paired gamosa at the event.”
“Gamosa got the GI tag which means that no other state or region can claim gamosa as their own. It was just an event where they honoured us with the gamosa. I don’t feel there should be any controversy regarding this matter as gamosa will always remain gamosa and no other region can claim it to be theirs,” he added.
However, the majority of people did not agree with his statement.