Veteran Bengali singer Kabir Suman on Sunday took to street to protest against the “insult” on Bengali Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
Banerjee on Sunday had stepped down without a speech after the cultural event, dedicated to Netaji on January 23 at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial.
Inapposite and repeated slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ coming from the crowd saw her getting visibly irritated. “I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cultural Ministry for conducting this programme in Kolkata. But to humiliate an invitee in such a manner is not appropriate,” Banerjee said.
“I think a programme such as this should have some dignity. This is not a political programme. As a protest, I refuse to speak anything else,” she concluded with slogans of ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Joy Bangla’ before coming down from the podium.
Soon after a political war kicked off with BJP targetting Banerjee for her “intolerant” behaviour to an “apolitical and religious” slogan.
While many have gone beyond the political lines and perceived the incident as an insult to Mamata Banerjee and Netaji himself – a staunch secular of his time who believed in keeping religion and politics separate.
Meanwhile, Kabir Suman, the pioneer of alternative Bengali music and known for songs on freedom, democracy, secularism and several other political and social issues, was seen holding a ‘Joy Bangla’ placard at Gariahat in Kolkata.
Making it clear that he was against the “divisive” politics of BJP and RSS, Suman said, “To honour a Bengali, they called another Bengali and insulted her. My message is ‘Joy Bangla’, no other ‘Jai’.”
“People have the right to say whatever they want. This is an independent democratic country. People can talk about fascism and everything, but this is still a democratic country.
“Anyone can say ‘Jai Shree Ram’ but not to insult someone. I’m Gandhian. This is my Satyagraha against what happened yesterday,” added the former Trinamool Congress MP.
Mamata Banerjee, the TMC supremo, has found CPIM and Congress standing beside her in hitting the Prime Minister and BJP for destroying the sanctity of the event on Netaji.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury attacked BJP and those who shouted the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans, saying that it was an insult to the elected Chief Minister of West Bengal.
“I can be an opposition leader to her politics but what happened at the Victoria Memorial was not required. It feels bad to see the Chief Minister being insulted like that. She was humiliated intentionally,” Chowdhury, the chief opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, said.
On the other hand, CPIM leader Mohammad Selim said, “Our political views might be different. But to hurl such inappropriate slogans at the Chief Minister in a government programme is reprehensible and ugly. It shows who had filled the seats of the programme hosted by the central government.”