Kolkata: The Visva Bharati University authorities’ decision to scrap the 125-year-old Poush Mela festival in Shantiniketan in view of the pandemic this year – while political gatherings and rallies continue in the same town – has invited reactions ranging from petitions to parallel festivals.
Poush (also spelled ‘Pous’) Mela is the annual winter fair that takes place in December at Shantiniketan, transforming the town of Bolpur into a hub of cultural and commercial exchange for a brief time.
University Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty had announced the decision to cancel this year’s festival in a break from tradition, in July, and had said that the university was “ill-equipped” to handle such festivities. The university had been rapped by the National Green Tribunal for flouting pollution norms in earlier iterations of the festival.
While the Bolpur Byabsayi Samiti (the town’s traders’ association) had asked the chief minister to intervene in the immediate aftermath of the VC’s announcement, a cultural body has said it will hold a three-day festival on December 23, 24 and 25 to “maintain the continuity of this traditional culture of Rabindranath Tagore.”
Both traders and folk artistes stand to be the worst affected by the cancellation.
The Birbhum district administration has allowed the Bangla Sanskriti Mancha’s festival to take place.
“The university administration had called off even under garb of the coronavirus, but everything else is open as usual. Elections are happening, political rallies are taking place, they don’t have a problem with that,” Samirul Islam, who heads the Mancha, told The Wire.
Union home minister Amit Shah on December 20 led a roadshow through Bolpur’s narrow streets. The TMC, too is slated to hold a rally in the town soon.
“The lockdown has paralysed handicrafts makers and folk artistes of the region. So we are giving them a platform where they can do business,” added Islam.
The VC’s decision to cancel the festival also met with protests as the Shantiniketan Trust, the highest decision-making body of the Poush Mela, was not taken into confidence before the Poush Mela was cancelled.
In August, the animosity between the Central university’s dispensation and the residents of Shantiniketan came to a boiling point after the latter demonstrated to bring down a boundary wall being put up by the university authorities.
The university has announced that it will hold a Poush Utsav which will have COVID-19 norms in place, according to reports. The prime minister, Bengal chief minister and state governor have been invited to virtually attend the festival, even though it is unclear what the festival will include.