New Delhi:
As Bengal’s Murshidabad simmers due to violence over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, local Trinamool Congress MP and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan is drawing fire for an Instagram post in which he is seen relaxing and enjoying a cup of tea. While most of the violence-hit areas are not part of Mr Pathan’s constituency, they are located nearby and the timing of the Insta post has raised eyebrows and triggered outrage on social media.
Mr Pathan shared three pictures on Instagram two days back, with the caption, “Easy afternoons, good chai, and calm surroundings. Just soaking in the moment.” Shortly after, social media users started criticising him for the post at a time when Murshidabad was tense due to the violence. One user asked, “Do you have any shame?”
Bengal is burning
HC has said it can’t keep eyes closed and deployed centra forcesMamata Banerjee is encouraging such state protected violence as Police stays silent!
Meanwhile Yusuf Pathan – MP sips tea and soaks in the moment as Hindus get slaughtered…
This is TMC pic.twitter.com/P1Yr7MYjAM
— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) April 13, 2025
The BJP hit out at the Trinamool MP and accused the Mamata Banerjee government of encouraging state-protected violence. “Bengal is burning. HC has said it can’t keep eyes closed and deployed central forces. Mamata Banerjee is encouraging such state protected violence as Police stays silent! Meanwhile Yusuf Pathan – MP sips tea and soaks in the moment as Hindus get slaughtered. This is TMC,” BJP’s national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla has said in a post on X.
Mr Pathan is yet to react to the criticism.
Supporters of Left parties, too, have slammed Yusuf Pathan for his tone-deaf post.
Three people have been killed in the violence at Murshidabad in north Bengal after protests against the Waqf Amendment Act, recently passed in Parliament, turned violent. The Calcutta High Court yesterday ordered the deployment of central forces in the district. “We cannot turn a blind eye to the various reports that have surfaced which prima facie shows vandalism in few districts of the State of West Bengal,” the court said. “Constitutional Courts cannot be a mute spectator and embroil itself in technical defences when the safety and security of the people are at danger,” the bench added.
Yusuf Pathan, a former Team India cricketer and brother of Irfan Pathan, is a Lok Sabha MP from Baharampur, one of three parliamentary constituencies in Murshidabad district. Violence has been reported in Suti, Dhuliya, Samserganj and some other areas in the district. Out of these three areas, Samserganj and Dhuliya are in Maldaha Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency and Suti in Jangipur. While Congress’s Isha Khan Choudhury is MP from Maldaha Dakshin, Trinamool’s Khalilur Rahaman represents Jangipur.
In last year’s general election, Mr Pathan defeated five-time MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in what was considered a Congress bastion. During the election, the Trinamool’s political rivals had questioned why Mr Pathan, based in Gujarat’s Baroda, was being fielded as an MP candidate in Bengal. The row over his Instagram post and his silence over the violence has fuelled public anger against the former cricketer.
