“Nazrul Islam an icon of all Bengalis”

Mamata flays campaign to project Bangladeshi poet as minority symbol

Observing that icons like poet Nazrul Islam cannot be labelled as “majority or minority icons”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Monday the poet is an icon of all Bengalis.

“Some people have started a whisper campaign saying Nazrul is a minority icon. This is appalling,” she said at an event mark 115th birth anniversary of Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh.

Inaugurating ‘Nazrul Tirtha’, a cultural and educational centre on the northeastern fringes of the city, Ms. Banerjee said the centre along with Rabindra Tirtha, would become a hub of cultural exchange between West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The State government had earlier set up Rabindra Tirth, a cultural-cum-educational complex dedicated to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

“Kazi Nazrul Islam has always talked of communal harmony. He taught us not to discriminate between people,” Ms Banerjee said, adding that her government would collaborate with Bangladesh in conducting research on Nazrul Islam

The Chief Minister said her government had set up a university – Kazi Nazrul Islam University near his birth place at Churulia in the State’s Bardhaman district.

Earlier in the day, Ms Banerjee paid tributes to the poet at the Secretariat.

At the function, she announced that the Rabindra Sadan complex in the city would be developed as a ‘Sanskriti Tirtha’ and an auditorium with a capacity of 2,500 would be developed there.