Kolkata: Amid raging controversy over the
West Bengal government`s plan to set up a Kazi Nazrul Islam
Academy and Museum at Indira Bhavan in Salt Lake, the rebel
poet`s grand-daughter Thursday said the controversy was uncalled
for.
``There is no reason for such controversies. It pains
us to see such debates over Kazi Nazrul Islam who is a world
poet,`` Misti Kazi told newsmen after meeting Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.
Asked about the protests by Congress over setting up
the academy in a building dedicated to the memory of Indira
Gandhi, she said, ``Nazrul Islam should not be dragged down to
the political level. I do not know why the Congress is doing
this. We have every respect for Indira Gandhi.``
She said Nazrul had close association with
Rabindranath Tagore and that `Nazrul is not only a poet of
Bengal, he belongs to the entire world`.
Expressing her gratitude to the chief minister for her
initiative in setting up the academy, she said, ``We are very
proud that the academy and museum is being set up in West
Bengal. On behalf of Nazrul Islam`s family, we thank the chief
minister for her initiative. She is very dear to us.``
She said her sister Khilkhil Kazi, who now lives in
Bangladesh, has also thanked the Chief Minister.
Kazi said that during the Left Front regime, her
family had tried to meet the erstwhile Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to request his intervention in
restoring the apartment on Christopher Road where Nazrul had
lived before he was taken to Bangladesh by Sheikh Mujibur
Rahaman.
``In spite of repeated attempts, we failed to get an
appointment with the then Chief Minister. But when my sister
Khilkhil requested Mamata Banerjee, she immediately ordered
restoration of the Christopher Road flat,`` she claimed.
Hakim alleged that neither the Centre nor the previous
West Bengal government had done anything in memory of the poet
Nazrul Islam. ``There would have been no problem if the
building was used as a guest house.``
PTI
