TDS Desk:

India’s eminent film director Goutam Ghose on Tuesday criticised a long-standing demand by All India Minority Federation for the removal of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s bust from the 114-year-old Baker Hostel in Kolkata where he spent five years of his student life till 1947.

Baker Hostel, where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman stayed between 1942 and 1947 as a student of Maulana Azad College (earlier Islamia College), houses the rooms where he had stayed, the bed, table, chair, almirah and books he used.

The bust was installed in the corridor outside the room in 2010 and later replaced by a new one in 2019 sculpted by Bangladeshi artist Liton Pal Ronny.

“This has been our demand for a long time. There is a mosque nearby, and people offer namaz there. The bust is out of place in that particular area. However, we have not objected to Bangabandhu’s bust placed elsewhere in the city,” said Mohammad Qamruzzaman, general secretary of the federation.

Criticising the demand of the Federation, Goutam Ghose, who recently shot a part of his yet-to-be-released documentary film “Mujib in Calcutta,” said “the (Bangladesh) deputy high commission took the initiative to create a corner there. It is part of history. This bust was featured in my documentary too.”

Goutam had visited Dhaka some months ago and showed the documentary to the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and secured her green signal.

Tanveer Nasreen, head of history at Burdwan University, highlighted Kolkata’s historical significance in shaping leaders like Suhrawardy, Fazlul Haque, and Shiekh Mujibur Rahman.

“Historically, the role Kolkata played in the making of the Bengali Muslim mind was essentially secular, progressive, and inclusive. There is no reason why Bangabandhu’s bust should be relocated from the Baker Hostel,” she said.