GUWAHATI: A Congress leader’s rendition of the Rabindra Sangeet “Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Bhalobasi,” which is the national anthem of Bangladesh, has stoked a controversy in Assam which will go to elections in six months from now.
At a Seva Dal meeting of the Congress at Sribhumi in southern Assam’s Barak Valley two days ago, party’s local leader Bidhu Bhushan Das, said to be in his seventies, started his address by singing the song. Bengalis are in a large majority in Barak Valley which adjoins Bangladesh.
Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore penned the song in 1905 during the first partition of Bengal.
The BJP reacted sharply after a video of the Congress leader’s rendition of the song went viral.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The meeting of the Congress started with the singing of Bangladesh’s national anthem. We cannot accept it in Assam.”
He also said that he had instructed the Assam Police to file a case of treason against Congress members in Sribhumi district. “We will lodge an FIR and the police will take actions under appropriate sections of law,” he added.
The BJP said “Bangladesh-obsessed” Congress proudly sang Bangladesh’s national anthem in Assam, just days after Bangladesh dared to publish a map swallowing the entire Northeast.
“If after this, someone still can’t see the agenda at play, then they’re either blind, complicit or both,” the BJP said.
The Congress shot back, slamming the BJP for its “ignorance”.
Jorhat MP and Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi said it is a song composed by Tagore – one that conveys the sentiments of Bengali culture. He alleged the BJP always insulted the Bengali language, Bengali culture and the people of Bengal.
“Their IT Cell in the past also insulted the people of Bengal. They have shown their ignorance. They have shown that they do not know the history of Rabindranath Thakur and his philosophy,” Gogoi said.
“I think the people of Bengal and Bengali-speaking people in different parts of India have realised that the BJP only uses them for votes but never cares to understand their culture, language and sentiments,” he further stated.
