This ceremony, as far as I know, is an initiation into the world of letters. BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh called it 'drama' and said the governor was acting on the 'advice of others'. Two other children, Subhojit Dhar and Ranjana Biswas, class-IV students of the Raj Bhavan Free Primary School Unit I, also took part in the ceremony, helping Bose to learn two important words one taught him ‘Ma' and the other the meaning of prithibi (Earth). She later presented him a copy of the Bengali primer, ‘Barnaparichay', written by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. CM Banerjee said she was extremely happy that the Bengal governor was keen on learning Bengali. Bose's interaction with his teacher ended with a meal and more gifts, including chocolates. The governor handed over a silver coin, bearing the images of Lakshmi and Ganesh, as his gurudakshina to Roy after writing the first letter of the Bengali alphabet in front of the CM. 'But I was not afraid of the governor because he was very cooperative,' she said. The nine-year-old admitted she was a bit nervous before walking up to the dais to conduct the ‘first-letter'. She came to Raj Bhavan dressed for the occasion in a yellow sari and appeared thrilled to hear the governor utter the sound of Bengali letters following her instruction. Bose's haat-e khari occurred at the hands of his nine-year old siksha guru, Diyasinee Roy, a class-III student of Chandernagore St Joseph's Convent School. Bose himself left for Delhi amid the row to attend PM Narendra Modi's programme with school students. TMC leaders, who labelled Raj Bhavan under Dhankhar as the 'BJP's camp office in Bengal'', threw their weight behind Bose, calling the BJP attacks 'an insult to the governor and the Bengali language'.

Bengal BJP leaders, who swore by Bose's predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, called the ceremony - attended by CM Mamata Banerjee - 'drama'. Kolkata: A haat-e khari ceremony (learning to write the first letter of the Bengali alphabet) for Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose, organised at Raj Bhavan on the occasion of Saraswati Puja and Republic Day on Thursday, has sparked a political row with a role reversal of sorts.

The bengali alphabet