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A controversy erupted after Congress leader Bidhu Bhushan Das sang the national anthem of Bangladesh during a party event. The incident occurred during an executive meeting of the Congress Sevadal, organised by the party's Sribhumi District Committee at Indira Bhavanm on October 27. After the video of the 80-year-old Congress leader singing the national anthem went viral, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the party of "sympathising with Bangladesh and Bangladeshis." "Now it's clear why Congress, for decades, allowed and encouraged illegal Miya infiltration into Assam - to change the state’s demography for vote-bank politics creating a "Greater Bangladesh," wrote Assam Health Minister Ashok Singhal while sharing the video of Das singing the anthem on social media platform X. The Assam BJP questioned whether this was a coincidence or an attempt to appease the Bangladesh-origin Muslim vote bank ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. Sribhumi district, where the meeting was held, borders Bangladesh and is part of the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley. What did the Congress leader say? After the backlash, the Congress leader issued a clarification and said that he was not aware that it is Bangladesh's anthem. "This is Rabindranath Thakur's song, he has penned it years before Bangladesh's song. I was not aware that this song is Bangladesh's anthem. If I knew, why would I be singing it? I didn't sing the entire song, just a single line - 'Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomay Bhalobasi', that's it," explained Das. Amar Sonar Bangla was adopted by Bangladesh as its national anthem after its independence in 1971, nearly seven decades after it was first written by Tagore in 1905 as a protest against the first partition of Bengal. But the BJP has accused the Congress of standing with Bangladesh at a time when ties between the two nations remain strained. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Poonawala said, "Today, the Congress party has become the admirer of Bangladesh...evidence has emerged of how the Congress Party has descended into an agenda to tear India apart. The Congress Party has been standing shoulder to shoulder with Bangladeshi infiltrators for years. During the UPA era, the work of settling crores of infiltrators in the country was carried out. Now, from its own platform, the Congress Party sings Bangladesh's national anthem to express its support. You must have seen this in the news as well." The Assam government has instructed the authorities concerned to probe the matter. For all the latest news and india news, visit Times Now to get live updates and breaking news around the world.
