E-Paper
TMC did not let Sandhya Mukherjee accept Padma award: BJP leader Dilip Ghosh
A political slugfest started hours after veteran Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee’s death over her decision to not accept the Padma Shri award in January.
KOLKATA: Hours after veteran Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee died in Kolkata on Tuesday evening at the age of 90, a political slugfest started over her decision to not accept the Padma Shri award in January.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president and Lok Sabha MP, Dilip Ghosh alleged in Delhi that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) wanted to politicise the issue and did not let Mukherjee accept the award.
“Sandhya Mukherjee’s death is a big loss for us….She was ailing for a long time. The Centre wanted to honour her but she became a victim of politics in the last days of her life. The TMC politicised the issue and did not let her accept the award. We were told that she refused it, but we did not see any video which could prove that. The TMC did politics,” Ghosh told reporters at the Delhi airport on Wednesday morning.
The issue was raised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as well.
Addressing the audience at a programme in Cooch Behar in north Bengal on Wednesday afternoon, Banerjee paid tributes to Mukherjee and musician Bappi Lahiri, another illustrious Bengali who died in Mumbai hours earlier. She said Mukherjee felt insulted when the Centre wanted to confer the Padma Shri award on her.
“There are many ways to honour a luminary. The Padma Shri is definitely an honour but there are higher awards. She deserved much more. This was insulting for her,” Banerjee said without naming the Centre or any political party.
Mukherjee, who was considered a legend during her lifetime, refused to accept the Padma Shri award on January 24 when a central government official called her up before the awards were announced in Delhi. Members of Mukherjee’s family told the media that she told the officer that Padma Shri is not an award that should be conferred on a veteran like her. It would be demeaning for her to accept it, the singer reportedly told the officer over phone from her south Kolkata residence.
The issue raised a major controversy. Noted members of the civil society in Bengal condemned the Centre’s decision. Some of them said people who were much junior to Mukherjee in the field of music had been selected for the Padma Bhushan award.
Three days after that incident, Mukherjee tested positive for Covid-19 at the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata when she was rushed there with signs of lung infection and breathlessness. Doctors found that Mukherjee was suffering from a serious heart problem that complicated her condition. Mamata Banerjee decided to shift her to Apollo Hospital where the singer’s condition deteriorated on Tuesday afternoon. She suffered a massive cardiac attack in the evening.
The singer rendered thousands of songs for Bengali cinema and her albums of modern and semi-classical music. She also recorded many songs for Hindi cinema. The industry gave her the title Geetashree.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned her death.
“The passing away of Gitashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Ji leaves us all extremely saddened. Our cultural world is a lot poorer. Her melodious renditions will continue to enthrall the coming generations. My thoughts are with her family and admirers in this sad hour. Om Shanti,” PM Modi said in a tweet around 11 pm on Tuesday.
The chief minister cut short her north Bengal tour to attend Mukherjee’s funeral in Kolkata on Wednesday evening. She announced that the singer would be honoured by the State with a gun salute.
Many BJP leaders paid their last respects to the singer at Rabindra Sadan in Kolkata where her body was kept.
A large portrait of Bappi Lahiri was also kept at the campus as the state mourned the death of the famous music director.
