Ananda Shubhajatra not brought out from political view:  Farooki

Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has said that this year’s Barshobaran Ananda Shubhajatra is not a political program and it has not been brought out from the political view.

“Fascism is not part of politics. Barshobaran Ananda Shubhajatra is not political program . . . this year we used mask of fascists for not the purpose of politics”, he said.

The adviser said this while inaugurating the Noboborsho Ananda Shobhajatra-1432 on the Dhaka University campus on Monday.  

The adviser said, “Previously, a particular political group used this cultural  Shobhajatra at Dhaka University as a tool to defeat their political opponents.”

“However, there are some historical political ingredients in this year's Noboborsho observation including the traditions of the Akbar era and the traditions of the Sultanate era but there is nothing typical politics here,” Farooki said.

Commenting on the renaming of the procession, he said Ananda Shobhajatra was started in the Fine Arts faculty in 1989. Later in 1996, it was changed to Mangal Shobhajatra. This time the authorities reinstated again to ‘Borshoborn Ananda Shobhajatra’, adding, “There was no incident of imposition, it was imposed earlier. The name was Borshoboron Shobhajatra in Jessore. When it came to Dhaka, it was named Ananda Shobhajatra. Afterwards, Mangal Shobhajatra was imposed”.

“This time, Fine Arts has decided to get back to the name with which the observation was started here,” he added.

Marking this year's celebration as a big step towards cultural unity and integration among Bangladeshi people, he said Pahela Boishakh is not a festival of 'Bangalees' rather it is a festival of Bangladeshi people. This celebration was made a festival of only 'Bangalees' excluding the people of other communities.

“Pahela Boishakh is a festival of Bangladeshi people and celebrated by all ethnic groups, including Bengalis, Chakma, Marma, and Garo. This year, we started celebrating it as a Bangladeshi festival including people from all communities,” Farooki added.