A CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR: Civil society, cultural activists, and students brought out a rally singing ‘Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomay Bhalobashi’ in Sribhumi town to register their protest against Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma’s threat to take legal action against the Congress workers who sang this Tagore’s composition which is also the national anthem of Bangladesh. The rally named as ‘Gaane O Surey Pratibad’ (protest through music’) was attended by cultural activists, leading citizens as well as students along with members of the Congress and SUCI. The agitators said that Tagore composed this immortal song in 1905 to protest the division of Bengal during the British rule, and that after the creation of Bangladesh, the song was declared as the national anthem of the neighbouring country. They maintained that singing a Tagore song could never be an act of treason, and reminded that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to this song in the recent past.
Controversy brewed up when a senior Congress worker sang a couplet of the song during a party meeting. The Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleged that singing of the national anthem of Bangladesh inside the Congress office was a serious issue and threatened that a sedition case would be registered against those who were present in the Congress meeting. An FIR was registered with the Sribhumi police in this connection. However no further step could be seen subsequently.
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