With Assembly elections knocking at the door and aware that minority voters form the mainstay of her vote bank, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday tended to score a huge political point by sending out the message of what she called “unity and tolerance” even as she hosted Pakistan ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium.
From a podium from where a huge cut out of the Chief Minister dominated thechoc-a-bloc house Banerjee averred how Bengal has been a place of religious harmony and brotherhood “preached by Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda, Rammohan, Tagore and Nazrul Islam” et al.
Hosted against the backdrop of communal violence in Malda, the Tuesday’s programme was promptly dismissed by the Opposition outfits as an “exercise by the Chief Minister to turn the media glare from recent burning issues and reap cheap electoral dividends.”
Banerjee said “whenever the humanity looked divided Bengal assumed the role of a unifier playing a pivotal role in bringing about cultural and communal unity among the people by welcoming cultural stalwarts like Ghulam Ali,” adding the City of Joy would host him time and again and each time the celebrations would be more ostentatious than the previous occasion.
The CM’s speech tended to go out to other parts of the country where the Pak ghazal singer was scheduled to be hosted but the programmes failed on account of protests by some political outfits.
After his concerts were cancelled in Mumbai and Delhi the Bengal Chief Minister invited her to Kolkata which he readily accepted.
The legendary singer who first performed in Kolkata in 1981 said “I have been coming to Kolkata for the past 30-35 years but this time it seems like I have come back after 50 years. I am feeling elated after a brief period of sadness.
The singer who performed with his some Aamir Ali compared Banerjee with Goddess Saraswati saying he was an epitome of all virtues.
When asked to comment on the Tuesday’s programme CPI(M) MP RitabrataBanerjee would circumvent the Ghulam Ali part but said “this has been a habit with the CM that
she enjoys music when her State burns.”
He added “she dismissed Malda violence as a law and order issue. By doing so she saved smugglers, opium traders, human-traffickers and dealers in fake currency, who are all TMC men.”