Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson Nalin Kohli on Saturday indicated that the BJP would hold more meetings with intellectuals in West Bengal. His comments come days after prominent intellectuals of the city stayed away from a meeting held by BJP president Amit Shah.
“If in one meeting some people did not come, that does not mean it was the last meeting,” Mr. Kohli told journalists on the sidelines of an event in the city organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
Not a success
However, Mr. Kohli did not deny that Mr. Shah’s meeting with intellectuals was not much of a success as most of the prominent faces of the State’s civil society did not attend it. “Anyone who is contributing to nation building is an intellectual. Intellectuals need not be only those we recognise by definition. There are prominent people, and then there are those who do not come into the limelight but are intellectually rich,” said Mr. Kohli.
Last Wednesday Mr. Shah held a meeting with the intellectuals in Kolkata. However, prominent faces of the State’s civil society such as actor Soumitra Chatterjee, former Supreme Court Judge Ashok Ganguly, activist-writer Santosh Rana, theatre personalities Rudraprasad Sengupta, Chandan Sen ,Manoj Mitra and painter Samir Aich turned down the State BJP’s invitation to meet Mr. Shah.
Mr. Kohli also said that “nothing concrete” had come out so far regarding the idea of a “grand alliance” against the BJP. “The idea of a grand alliance is still notional. Several key questions such as who will lead the alliance and who will be part of it are still unanswered,” he said.
