Guwahati, April 17: An embarrassed state government has ordered an internal probe to ferret out the credentials of Sanskar Bharti, which organised a three-day Bihu programme at Sankardev Kalakshetra.
Following a complaint, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has asked minister of state for planning and development Himanta Biswa Sharma to find out whether Sanskar Bharti is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Assam government was caught on the wrong foot by allegations of Sanskar Bharti’s bid to saffronise the state’s most popular spring festival — Rongali Bihu — as the tourism department was involved in the function.
Sharma was also asked by the chief minister to find out how the tourism department got involved in the programme. Sources also said if it is proved that Sanskar Bharati was an RSS-backed organisation, it would lodge an official complaint with New Delhi as funds for organising the three-day programme were provided by the Centre.
Though the function was inaugurated by Governor Lt. Gen. (retd) S.K. Sinha, chief minister Tarun Gogoi was not invited to the function though he was in town.
Sources hinted that the state government may axe senior bureaucrats who were allegedly involved in making the state tourism department a co-sponsor without checking out the antecedents of Sanskar Bharti.
Sanskar Bharti, however, said it seeks to preserve art and culture and create a platform for the cultural unification of the country. “We have two objectives: The first is to strengthen the emotional bonds between Assam and the rest of the country. We also intend to weed out the influence of Western culture,” said Nilam Bhattacharjee, secretary of Sanskar Bharati’s Guwahati chapter.
Apart from the usual Bihu performances, a multilingual poetry conference, a national integration camp, a workshop on painting and an art exhibition and other cultural programmes marked the three-day-long Bihu celebrations. Artistes from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh took part in the celebrations, apart from the cultural troupe from Assam.
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