If not anything else, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb has been consistent about being a headline grabber. Not for initiating development projects in the BJP's newly-won bastion, but for his bloopers.


In a video being circulated on social media, the 46-year-old chief minister is seen telling his audience that "Rabindranath Tagore returned his Nobel Prize in protest against the British."

Deb made these remarks at a function to mark the birth anniversary of the poet.

Fact is Tagore accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 because it was bestowed by Sweden. However, he returned his Knighthood in protest against the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919.

Deb's gaffes have become an almost daily embarrassment for the BJP since he commented last month that "Internet and satellite communication existed during the Mahabharata era". He never retracted that statement.

He then questioned the crowning of Diana Hayden as Miss World in 1997, saying she was "not an Indian beauty like Aishwarya Rai"=, but after the flak he faced, he apologised.

The Chief Minister also stated that mechanical engineers should not opt for civil services, but civil engineers should.

Then there was the one about how graduates shouldn't run after government jobs, but should start paan shop instead. Or how young men should breed cows and explore a career in dairy.

Reports had said that he had been summoned by prime minister telling him to zip his lip but clearly that hasn't worked.



Image: Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb at the Rabindra Jayanti celebrations at Agartala on May 8. Courtesy: @BjpBiplab