KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress has expressed “surprise” at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden “enthusiasm” to establish the connect that Rabindranath Tagore and his family had with Modi’s home state, Gujarat.
“Tagore is not just Bengal’s poet. He is a visva kavi (world poet). Why is the PM trying to confine Tagore to a particular region?” Bengal science and technology minister Bratya Basu said hours after the PM’s virtual Visva-Bharati speech on Thursday.
Basu referred to Tagore’s novels and essays to assert that the bard’s world vision was more open and much above religious bigotry, narrow nationalism and “cow vigilantism”. “Will the PM take responsibility for the cow vigilantes who are killing people?” he asked.
Basu read out extracts from Tagore’s writings, where the poet criticised the narrow use of religion. “Tagore, at times, sounds like an atheist though he was a believer with his philosophy of humanism rooted in the Upanishad. Tagore in his essay, ‘HinduMusalman’, also frets over the influence that religion has over people’s lives. And, in his novel, ‘Gora’, the protagonist follows aggressive Hindu nationalism but finds he has Irish lineage,” Basu said.
‘PM belittling Kolkata & Bengal’
Then, in a nod to the phenomenon of majoritarian politics making inroads among the bhadralok, he cited another Tagore novel, ‘Ghare Bhaire’, to argue how “artificial nationalism” intoxicated people, adding: “Tagore’s alter ego, Nikhilesh, in ‘Ghare Bhaire’ talks about the bigger truth of a life based on brotherhood.”
Basu also accused the PM of “belittling” Kolkata and Bengal. “He referred to the contributions of universities in Delhi and Lahore to the freedom struggle. But he did not name Calcutta University. He did not name Jadavpur University that has its roots in the National Council of Bengal. He now names Khudiram Basu and Prafulla Chaki. But he ignored the long list of freedom fighters sent to Andaman Cellular Jail and named it after V R Savarkar,” Basu said.