Government ‘willing to host’ Pakistani artist’s show which Governor refused to inaugurate

As blame game started, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inquired into the controversy surrounding the cancellation and promised to look into the matter while exclaiming that “it is our culture to welcome all artists”, pointing out the recent instance when Bengal had “invited Ghulam Ali” whose concert in Mumbai was cancelled after Shiv Sena protested against inviting “a Pakistani artist”.

“The government is willing to host his (Rassam’s) event. Ghalib had a long association with the city. If things work out, Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor Sovan Chatterjee could inaugurate the exhibition,” a state government official told The Indian Express. The exhibition was scheduled to begin on Saturday at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata but the authorities there cancelled it at the last minute, saying it was done after Rassam’s “deceit came to light”.

Jayanta Sengupta, Secretary & Curator of Victoria Memorial, which is under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Culture, had said: “Rassam consistently told us that he had spoken to Gulzar and would be arranging his flight to Kolkata. He even sent us the flight details but informed us at the last minute that Gulzar would not be able to come as he was unwell. Later, we spoke to Gulzar who said he had told Rassam that he would not be coming for the event. That is when we realised that Rassam had been deceitful and we decided to cancel the event because it would legitimise this trickery.”

A spokesperson from the Governor’s office cited the ensuing “confusion”, “allegations of deceit” and the “absence of Gulzar” as reasons for Tripathi’s decision to not attend the event. “After we were informed that Gulzar wasn’t coming, the Governor cancelled the event. There was a lot of confusion…and there also seemed to be some allegations of deceit. The Governor also had some personal work to attend to,” the spokesperson had said.

Rassam, however, had denied the allegations. “Gulzar saab had never categorically told me he wouldn’t be coming. In fact, I was really surprised with the entire behavior of the museum authorities. If they had wanted a celebrity, they should have invited him directly or hosted an exhibition around him. This was supposed to be an exhibition of my work where Gulzar saab was to be an honoured guest. This exhibition was envisioned with the idea of friendly relations between India and Pakistan at its core and I have found this entire episode very distasteful,” he said.