Boishakhi fair held in East London amid indignation!

Ahiduzzaman, from London: Bengali community leaders in East London have said tensions are running high among the members of local community as investigation into an alleged corruption that took place several years ago centring Boishakhi fair was not launched.

Lutfur Rahman was sacked as Executive Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets of East London for his alleged involvement in corruption in 2015 and he was subsequently replaced by the current post holder, Mayor John Biggs. Resentment has again surfaced amongst the Bengali community as it appears that Mayor John Biggs has resorted to the same bad practices.

Expressing concern in this regard, Wahid Ahmed, a former executive deputy mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets council, said, “The Boishakhi fair is now being held nominally as the present organisers do not have any experience regarding Bengali culture. He also went on to say that in the barometer of culture, this recent event cannot be described as Boishakhi fair. Even there was no presence of the mass media in the fair. The council authorities have failed to draw the attention of newspapers and media to the fair. Previous organisers used to undertake a publicity campaign through local advertising and involve journalists to attend the event. At present the media are very reluctant in this regard and therefore, people are deprived of information about the Boishakhi fair.”

Meanwhile, the organisers of this year’s event were unable to arrange the scheduled festival in April due to poor weather and the fasting month of Ramadan of Muslims. The fair has been taking place in May and June for the last 18 years.

Initially, the community would celebrate the festival through forming committees comprising elite individuals and taking some help from the council. Around 70 to 80 thousand people used to throng the Boishakhi fair and different media including BBC would provide a comprehensive coverage of the fair as a significant cultural event.

Earlier, a private company in the name of ‘Boishakhi Trust’ was floated under the leadership of Siraj Haque, who ran the event until 2015. Allegations of serious corruption, human trafficking, and misappropriation of millions of pounds were surfaced against Mr Haque. Later, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council took charge of the fair from 2016. Since then the fair has been taking place under the complete supervision of the local council.

According to reports published in the British mainstream media, this traditional fair has lost its appeal and interest of at least half a million people, due to shameless corruption and infighting involving the community leadership. People are keeping themselves aside from taking part in the fair due to reports of a number of allegations.

Originally, the Boishakhi fair was a unique event of recreation and cultural integration for mainstream British population who are fond of such multinational customs. 

Speaking on this matter, Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, a senior journalist at Bangla Press Club in London and an assistant editor of the Weekly Janamat, said, “The Bengali community has little interest or involvement with the Boishakhi fair now being held under the supervision of the council. There is now serious impact of our culture given current state of the fair. Central to the main attraction of this fair is Bengali culture and the fair has lost its interest of the local community as there is no reflection of the Bengali culture in it.”

He went on to say that in order to make the Boishakhi fair popular among all the organisers again, it needs to involve the local and national media including the Bengali community. He said that previously Bengali language print media and television played an extraordinary role in popularising the festival. TV broadcasting used to give wide live coverage to the fair at their own costs, and which attracted huge numbers to the fair.

Mosleh Uddin Ahmed further said, “Now the media are completely neglected. Although rallying of the Boishakhi fair is right to some extent, I am completely frustrated over the loss of main function.”

It should also be mentioned that the Dhaka police arrested 19 people in 2012 as they applied to the UK High Commission in Dhaka for visas to attend the Boishakhi fair. At that time, the arrested people admitted to the police that they had offered one million pound sterling to the then fair organiser - Siraj Haque- to obtain sponsor letters to support their visa applications.

At that time, the UK Home Office, the local parliament member and the council authorities had expressed concern over this corruption, and attempts to provide fake artistes and performers in securing UK visas to attend the event.  

Newspapers published reports about these concerns, as a result of which the Bengali community people have turned their backs on the festival. Samsuddin Shams, a renowned businessman of Brick Lane, East London, and president of London Metropolis Bangabandhu Foundation, said, “Because of all these misdeeds, the fair could not be made universal till date. Despite the reality, local community leaders believe that the Boishakhi fair still remains as central and enthusiastic for life of Bengali community.”

On this year’s occasion, Ronne Mirza of a London-based artiste and Nidia Ali of BBC Asian Networks performed as anchors at the main stage of the fair. Band music, artiste Imran, folklore music artistes Lovely Deb and Belly Afroz rendered songs.

There was a mixed reaction from among the audiences and many fair visitors who commented that “Earlier, Siraj Haque used to hire Indian singers to render Hindi songs in the fair. This time at least a few Bangladeshi singers have got the opportunity, in place of the Indian ones.”

Expressing anger, visitors to the fair said, “Bangladesh has many artistes of world standard and there are many renowned singers amongst the Bengali community here in London. They can render world class music and we don’t understand why these artistes were not invited to the Boishakhi Mela.”

 

risingbd/London/July 7, 2019/Ahiduzzaman/AI