CM attends Rabindra Jayanti event, but as audience member
Times of India | 9 May 2024
Kolkata: Barred by the model code of conduct from being on the dais of a state govt programme, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday sat in the audience for 20 minutes and watched Rabindra Jayanti celebrations on Cathedral Road. The CM came down to the function straight from Hooghly where she was campaigning for Rachana Banerjee. She also offered flowers at a statue of Rabindranath Tagore.This was the CM’s first break from the campaign trail in 38 days.
Ministers Aroop Biswas and Indranil Sen were also present at the programme that started with the popular Tagore song ‘Banglar Maati, Banglar Jol’ that has been recently given the status of Bengal’s state song. While Sen is a popular singer and regularly performs at govt events, the two ministers stayed away from the stage.
Earlier in the day, before garlanding a portrait of Tagore in Arambag, Banerjee said: “Each year, we celebrate Tagore’s birth anniversary in a big way. But this year, the EC has imposed certain routine restrictions. But it cannot be that I will not be part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebrations. In whichever meeting I am going, I am keeping a Tagore portrait on the dais. I’ll go home today after one month and eight days, but first I’ll be at the Cathedral Road function. In the next four-five days, I will travel to Howrah, Hooghly, Barrackpore and Bongaon. I’ll then be at Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Contai and Tamluk in the next five to six days,” she said. The CM also posted on X, quoting Tagore: “On this auspicious day of his birthday, I pay my homage to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in his own words — Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; … Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”