Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's Latest: Rabindranath Tagore Returned Nobel Prize In Protest

Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb has added another blooper to the list of his gaffes. 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." Mr Deb made these remarks at a function in Udaipur to mark birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore did receive the Nobel Prize for poetry in 1913. He, however, had rejected Knighthood in protest against the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919.

Mr 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.

Then he questioned the crowning of Diana Hayden as Miss World in 1997, saying she was "not an Indian beauty like Aishwarya Rai". However, he later apologised.

He didn't stop. Soon after, at an event in the state capital Agartala, the Tripura chief minister said that "mechanical engineers should not opt for civil services, but only civil engineers should."

A few weeks back, he offered advice that raised many eyebrows. "Graduates shouldn't run after government jobs, they should start paan shop instead," he declared.

Also, he suggested, young men should breed cows and explore a career in dairy.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's massive victory in the Tripura assembly election in March threw the spotlight on Biplab Deb, who took over two years ago as the BJP's Tripura chief, its youngest in any state.