Kolkata: The open-air Rabindra Jayanti celebrations at Jorasanko Thakurbari, a tradition in Kolkata since 1961, will be scaled down considerably and held indoors this year because of the model code of conduct. The decision was taken at the Executive Council meeting of Rabindra Bharati University on Friday.
RBU interim vice-chancellor Shubhro Kamal Mukherjee told TOI, “We held an EC meeting to take a call on this year’s celebrations.We shall do it on a much smaller scale — with only teachers and students — because of pending permissions from the Election Commission. We need the poll panel to clear any programme when tenders worth over Rs 10 lakh need to be invited.”
A poll official said the letter had to be routed through the state govt and they were yet to receive such a letter from RBU.
Sources said the Prabhati Anushthan or morning event, during which Tagore’s bust is garlanded by the VC might take place this year, but the elaborate cultural event that followed, when renowned and accomplished singers, dances and elocutionists performed, might not be held.“The cultural programme is likely to be handled by teachers and students. It will be more like an in-house affair,” said an RBU official.
The ritual, in which hundreds of people from across Kolkata and the suburbs converge on Tagore’s ancestral home to pay homage to him, took a two-year pandemic-break. But since 2022, it has been observed with as much flourish and enthusiasm as before.
Assuming things wouldn’t be any different this year, 70 RBU staff members and two students on the Rabindra Jayanti organizing panel had attended a meeting on April 1, convened by Mukherjee to plan Tahore’s 164th birth anniversary. RBU officiating registrar Ashis Kumar Samanta, who had attended the meeting, said, “On April 22, we wrote to the EC, seeking permission to invite bids for the function. A reminder was sent to the poll panel on Wednesday. We are yet to receive any response.”
At the April 1 meeting, the authorities had decided that like every year, 2,000 invitation cards would be printed, But none has yet been printed.