Madhya Pradesh Minister and BJP leader Inder Singh Parmar has sparked controversy by saying that social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a "British agent" who started a "vicious cycle of religious conversion", prompting the TMC to call the remarks an insult to Bengal.

After facing widespread flak, the MP Higher Education Minister apologised on Sunday, claiming his remark was a "slip of the tongue".

The row erupted at a time when the BJP, after winning the Bihar elections, has set its eyes on TMC-ruled West Bengal, where assembly polls are due next year.

Recently, a political confrontation erupted between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over two of Bengal's most revered cultural icons, Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

In Kolkata, West Bengal Minister Shashi Panja

See Full Page