At a time when a vocal section in the West is up in arms against India on the allegations of multiple human rights violations in the country, the farmers’ agitation being the latest, and friendship in the immediate neighbourhood is suspect in some cases, Tripura’s BJP Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has added a new feather to his cap. He named Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said that the latter had plans to establish BJP governments in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Deb is not new to controversies. Only last year, he stirred a controversy within the country on regional and linguistic lines by claiming that Punjabis and Haryanvis had the physical strength, but did not have the brains of Bengalis. On another occasion, he shocked the scientific community, nearer home and overseas, claiming that satellites were used in the Mahabharata war.