Barely five weeks after Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee managed to sweep composer-singer-MP Kabir Suman’s first rebellion under the carpet, he has dropped the second one on her doorstep.
Suman is planning to launch his album —Chhatradharer Gaan (Songs for Chhatradhar) — in Kolkata Book Fair, demanding the release of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) leader, who’s in police custody.
The PCAPA surfaced in Lalgarh in Bengal’s West Midnapore district, about 180 km west of Kolkata, against police highhandedness after a Maoist attack on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s motorcade on November 2, 2008.
In the second week of November 2009, Suman criticised the party for the first time for stifling his voice and for corruption among some party leaders. This time, he said, “The songs say whatever I had to say. There is nothing that I want to add.”
Banerjee, under pressure from the CPI(M) for allegedly being in league with the Maoists, recently turned 360 degrees and insisted on army deployment in the Maoist-dominated West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts.
“Our views on the Maoists remain unaltered. Suman’s songs are an artist’s personal expression,” Mamata Banerjee told HT on Tuesday.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, however, seems to have a solution. He said, “We are sending Suman on a 10-day trip to Egypt, Turkey and Greece on January 14.”
{{/usCountry}}Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, however, seems to have a solution. He said, “We are sending Suman on a 10-day trip to Egypt, Turkey and Greece on January 14.”
{{/usCountry}}Hardly a solution, since Kolkata Book Fair will open on January 27.