Folk singer Basudeb Das Baul may have wanted to regale Union home minister Amit Shah with a song on “amity and peace” before the lunch he hosted at home on Sunday, but could not.
There seemed to be just no time for the song Basudeb had planned, Orey manus dekhbi jodi bhogoban (o human, if you want to see god), which talks of religious tolerance. Basudeb could just sing a welcome song in front of the home minister before being “prodded” for lunch.
Shah, who lunched on rice, dal, roti, potato and pointed gourd fritters, alu-posto, among other simple vegetarian Bengal dishes, however, asked for a third roti after the first two.
Basudeb, however, said later in the day that he was “grateful” that the home minister of the country had dined at his modest home.
He added that he was unable to sing his chosen repertoire after the welcome song Tomay hridoy mahje rakhbo (I will keep you in my heart) in front of Shah or discuss the plight of Baul singers during the lockdown months with him.
The Telegraph had reported on Friday that the Baul singer had planned to do both on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, I did not get to sing the songs of peace and amity that I had chosen. I was ushered away for lunch just as my welcome song ended, and that particular song (that was sung) did not have much to do with amity but rather with affection,” Basudeb said later at his Subhas Pally home near Visva-Bharati campus.
Sources said it was unclear what stopped the song on religious tolerance from being sung in Shah’s presence, given that local BJP leaders had reportedly cleared it.
“It seems that Amit Shahji wanted to move on to lunch sooner than was expected,” said a source. Shah and his entourage had landed in Santiniketan 40 minutes late on Sunday.
Shah was accompanied by senior BJP leaders such as Swapan Dasgupta, Mukul Roy, Dilip Ghosh, Kailash Vigayvargiya, Rahul Sinha, Anupam Hazra, among a host of others.
However, the tenor of the Union home minister’s hurried lunch at Basudeb’s home in Santiniketan echoed the reports of his visit to Bankura district last month.
There, Shah again had lunch at a tribal leader’s home but left reportedly without listening to his host who wanted to talk about his diabetic teenage daughter.
“I had really wanted to discuss the plight of the Bauls and their sufferings during this (pandemic-induced) lockdown (with the home minister). But I was unable to. Perhaps I should be satisfied that someone of his stature (Shah) even stepped inside my home,” Basudeb added.
The song that went unsung is among those that are also well-known as “Bhoba Paglar gaan” (the songs of Bhoba Pagla, who is considered an icon of the Baul community).
Some of its lines are “Chhere de tor bhinno bhed, dekhna shastro dekhna Ved/ Bible Koran noire probhed, shon re Hindu shon Mussalman (Leave your habit of discriminating against people, look into the Shastras or in the Veda/ There is no difference between Bible and Koran, the Hindus and the Muslims)”.
“The lyrics of the song give out a message of communal harmony, secularism and tolerance and requests people not to discriminate against human beings on the basis of their religions,” the folk singer had told The Telegraph on Friday.
“Throughout this song, you will find this message of humanity. As a Baul, I believe in humanity and communal harmony,” Basudeb had said.