PM Narendra Modi has Sunday come up with very good suggestions. He suggests that Indians living abroad should give special focus on making numerous festivals across the country an attraction for tourists of different parts of the world. India, in fact, is a land of culture and festivals. No other country in the world can boast of such a wide range of cultural events and festivals that India has. The country has been running the ‘Incredible India’ campaign for quite a long time now. But then, the trend of tourist arrival from other countries has not been very encouraging. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in the country rose by 5.2 per cent to 1.05 crore in 2018, according to the government. The foreign exchange earnings through them also went up 9.6 per cent to Rs 1.94 lakh crore last year. In sharp contrast, China had received over 14 crore inbound foreign tourists in the year 2018, which was a 1.2 per cent increase over the previous year. This is enough to prove that all is not well with tourism planning in India. Prime Minister Modi, during the course of his ‘Mann ki Baat’ interaction with the people over his extremely popular radio programme on Sunday also particularly mentioned making Holi, Diwali, Onam, Pongal and Bihu popular among people of other States and countries, and suggested that Indians living abroad and people living outside their home states should also work as publicity managers for these and other festivals.
A close look at Assam will however show that though the State tourism planners have included Rongali Bihu in its list of important tourist attractions, the ground reality has been very different. Most people within the State are becoming increasingly critical of the manner in which bihu is being celebrated in recent times. One, it has become a festival for forcible collection of donations, which often becomes akin to extortion. Two, most things that are being showcased or performed in the name of Rongali Bihu have nothing to do with the bihu festival at all. Musical performances by singers – several of them ill-mannered too – is not Bihu. Fashion shows are not bihu. Yes, bihu-kunwari competitions are an extension of the original Bihu. But where is the hussori? Where is the jeng-bihu? Where are the bihu delicacies, the numerous kinds of pitha? And three, why do Bihu functions continue till the Assamese month of Jeth? And why do these programmes make such indiscriminate use of loud-speakers and sound-systems till almost dawn, thus causing immense disturbance to the majority of the people living in a locality? How can such kind of a Rongali Bihu become an attraction for tourists? Forget the foreign tourist, where does even a local person, say a child who has grown up in a city like Guwahati, go to see the bathing of cattle with all the rituals associated with it on the day of Goru Bihu? Yes, the Prime Minister must be speaking of selling our festivals abroad to attract foreign tourists with all good intentions.
In a State like Assam, where do tourists from abroad find good, clean accommodation? A simple example is Sivasagar. The Assam government tourist lodge is not fit for stay. Most rooms stink. The windows are full of layers of dust, while curtains have not been probably washed and changed for years. The restaurant is the worst. Moving around the town, most visitors do not find a tourist guide, while there are hardly any signboards around that can provide the visitors a description of the tourist spot. Simply spending several crores of rupees from the public exchequer for appointing a top actor as brand ambassador for one year cannot attract tourists.