Kolkata: At a time when BJP’s Bengal unit president Samik Bhattacharya has openly criticised a section of party workers who, in his opinion, are maligning the party’s image, state’s parliamentary affairs and tourism minister Shankar Ghosh’s comment that ministers shouldn’t speak on everything under the sun has turned heads.Ghosh on Sunday clarified that his comment was made in “the larger perspective” and was broadly a “self-realisation”. “It was a general statement made to an audience at an event marking World Diabetes Day. There is nothing to read between the lines,” he said.He added that ministers should not think they can say anything. “People should realise ministers don’t know everything. For example, I can’t comment on surgical procedures if I don’t know about them. Ministers should realise that. That has also been my realisation in the course of my political career,” he said.Ghosh did not want to contextualise his statement, only stating that “the larger perspective could not be missed.” He said, “We have seen during the Trinamool and Left regimes how ministers had a false sense of glory about knowing everything. I can’t claim that has gone away completely. The shadow of that (kind of thinking) is still there and surfaces from time to time.”The minister further pointed at the limitations of being a minister. “A minister has some powers, which widen their area of work. But there is no scope to show that power. It (a ministry post) shouldn’t become a means to flaunt power. It should be a means to improve society,” he said, adding that ministers need to learn the administrative process from officers and experts.BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said Ghosh has had a long political career and what he says holds value. “He is a senior politician who has had a political upbringing. I don’t exactly know the context in which he made the statement, but it’s self-explanatory.”“We have seen how ministers flaunted power during the left and Trinamool regimes. BJP is trying to come out of that (practice). Many have become ministers for the first time. But they are willing to learn, and they will learn, in time,” Sarkar added.
