Indira Bhavan controversy unnecessary: Nazrul kin

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 today 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.[caption id=“attachment_173672” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] 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, Kazi 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