Mamata, Centre spar over a song

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has again emerged “victorious” in the latest tussle with the Centre. This time, the spat was over a song. Saubhadra Chatterji reports.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has again emerged “victorious” in the latest tussle with the Centre. This time, the spat was over a song.

Participating in the Republic Day parade after a gap of almost a decade, Banerjee’s government is adamant about playing Rabindranath Tagore’s Neel Digontey Oi Surer Aagun as the background music for the state's tableau.

But the committee, constituted by the defence ministry to review the cultural celebrations, suggested that this be replaced by another Tagore number — Aaji Bosonto Jagroto.

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After resisting the state’s choice for almost a week, the panel relented on Monday when Bengal’s representatives made it clear that Banerjee will not compromise on the choice of song.

The Trinamool chief is generally very particular about Tagore’s songs. She bought her first laptop a couple of years ago just to play Rabindrasangeet.

Earlier, during her tenure as the railway minister, Banerjee approached defence minister AK Antony to approve her plan for the railway ministry tableau after the experts committee objected to making Tagore as the theme. Antony, as expected, promptly obliged.