West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee felicitates singer-composer Bappi Lahiri as singer Ajay Chakraborty looks on during the inauguration of Gaan Mela at Nazrul Manch in Kolkata on Monday. — Abhijit Mukherjee
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday evening sent out a clear message that her government would not see political colour when honouring eminent personalities in different spheres of arts, sports, literature et al.
Ms Banerjee handed over the lifetime achievement award to noted music director and singer Bappi Lahiri, who was the BJP candidate in the last Lok Sabha elections from Sreerampore in Hooghly.
Bappi Lahiri, after receiving the award, addressed Ms Banerjee as Didi (sister) and said, “I am honoured to be present on this occasion. I have enormous respect for you in my heart. My identity is that I am a Bengali.”
The lifetime achievement award was also conferred upon Kumar Sanu, another singer, who had formally joined the saffron party in December 2014. He, however, could not come to the city to personally receive the award, which his brother accepted on his behalf. A galaxy of stars were on Monday felicitated.
Clearly contradicting the Opposition’s campaign that her government gave awards only to artists which belonged to the Trinamul camp, Ms Banerjee had recently honoured actors like Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Chandan Sen at the same venue. All three were known for their Leftist leanings.
The chief minister on Monday also announced succour for artists-in-distress. “There are so many singers who eke out a living by singing on the streets and in trains. We have made a list of 50,000 such singers. We will give them a monthly stipend of '1000 and will use them for government advertisements,” she added.
The government has created a special category of awards in 2016 and named them after several legendary artistes who represented the golden era of music, like Pulak Bandyopadhyay, S.D. Burman, Hemanta Mukhopdhyay, Salil Chowdhury, Manna Dey, Pratima Bandyopadhyay, RD Barman. Some of the recipients under this category were Samir Khasnabis, Rupam Islam, Dilip Roy, Subhomita, Aneek Dhar etc.
