All planned cultural events at the Bangladesh Bhavan on the campus of Visva Bharati University in West Bengal’s Shantiniketan have been postponed for an indefinite period because of the continuing unrest in the neighbouring country.
Bangladesh Bhavan is a centre for research on the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. The facility inaugurated in 2018 also provides scope for research on the literary works of revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Sources said a screening of the Shyam Benegal-directed biopic on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — ‘Mujib – The Making of a Nation’ — was scheduled to be screened at the Bangladesh Bhavan this month, which now stands postponed indefinitely owing to the volatile situation in the neighbouring country.
A cloud of uncertainty also hangs over other cultural programmes planned at the Bangladesh Bhavan this year, including the Bangladesh Film Festival and Bangladesh Theatre Festival.
Manabendra Mukhopadhyay from the Bengali department, who’s also the principal coordinator for the Bangladesh Bhavan, said all these plans will now depend on the foreign policies of the governments of the two countries.
The sources also said that there was a plan to organise a tree plantation drive at the Bangladesh Bhavan on the occasion of ‘Baishe Srabon’ (the death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore) on August 14, which will now be held at a different venue.
Meanwhile, India on Tuesday expressed deep concern over the situation in Bangladesh, a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister and reached Delhi following massive violence in Dhaka and several other parts of the neighbouring country.
Making a suo-moto statement in the Rajya Sabha, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar said, “Properties of individuals associated with the regime were torched across the country. What was particularly worrying was that minorities, their businesses, and temples also came under attack at multiple locations. The full extent of this is still not clear.”
Asserting that the Indian government remains in “regular touch” with the authorities in Dhaka, Jaishankar said that New Delhi expects the host government to provide required security protection to Indian establishments in Bangladesh besides ensuring the protection and well-being of the minorities.