Tagore sculpture controversy

In 16 February, Shimul Kumbhakar came to the campus in the morning and saw that the sculpture was not in place. The students who installed the sculpture began to suspect that someone had removed the sculpture. They hoisted a banner in front of the Anti Terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture to protest against the sculpture removal. The banner read "Gum Hoye Gechen Robindronath!" (lit. 'Rabindranath is missing!').^[1] After the removal of the incident went viral and their deed was criticized, the university authority said that they have removed the sculpture.^[8]

The day after the sculpture was removed, some passers-by found the broken pieces of the sculpture towards Suhrawardy Udyan. After they took photographs of the broken pieces and shared them on social media, the students came to know and recovered the broken parts.^[9] The students assembled the broken parts of the sculpture and installed it at its original location on February 18 and hung two banners on either side of it. A banner read "Repeal the Digital Security Act and stop all forms of censorship". The university proctor termed the installation of a defaced statue of a venerable figure like Rabindranath as "degenerate culture", while another banner read "We have forgotten you under the guise of your venerability".^[10]

However, although the pieces of the sculpture were put back together, its head was tilted and its state of disrepair was visible. As a result it was removed by students on 22 February.^[11]

AKM Golam Rabbani, the proctor of the university, felt that permission should have been taken from the authority before installing the sculpture.^[1] Terming the installation of another sculpture next to Raju's as "degenerate culture", he said the students had insulted Rabindranath Tagore by defacing it.^[12] According to him, the students made the sculpture in deep darkness which is suspicious. He termed the banners hanging next to the sculpture as "banner terror".^[13] According to the university authority, the students who erected the sculpture have other motive. Students, on the other hand, feel that the authority removed the statue to please the government.^[14]

A. S. M. Abdur Rab, the president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, criticized the authority in a party statement saying that throwing the broken head of Rabindranath Tagore's sculpture in the garbage heap at Suhrawardy Udyan was not a sign of respect for the poet. He and the party's general secretary Shaheed Uddin Mahmud Swapan compared the incident with the Bengali language movement and said that if the activists had followed the law in protest, the Central Shaheed Minar would not have been built today. At that time the authority demolished the Shaheed Minar, but later they lost power in East Pakistan.^[15] The Dhaka University branch of the Bangladesh Students Union said in a published statement that the university authority had taken a stand against freedom of speech by removing the sculpture.^[13]

Syed Anwar Husain compared the situation with Pakistan and said,^[13]

"Rabindranath is the only poet, who is universal. He spoke for all the people of the world. If the sculpture of Rabindranath is removed from the university of Dhaka, then I am bound to say - Bangladesh has returned to the Pakistani era. I am very angry. Hearing the news. None of the promises of Bangladesh's liberation war are left now. The removal of the sculpture of Rabindranath is proof of this. This has been done with the consent of the university authority."^[13]

Mum Rahman said that she is against erecting a sculpture at someone's place without taking permission. But, according to her, the current situation of Bangladesh has been reflected in this incident. Disagreeing with the proctor's reply, Raju Alauddin questioned that since the university was a place of protest, there was no question of seeking permission from the authority to erect the sculpture for the purpose of a just protest. However he thinks that Tagore haters may be responsible for this incident.^[16] Hamiduzzaman Khan thinks that instead of removing the sculpture, the authority could discuss with students.^[13]

According to journalist Farooq Wasif, the sculpture did not succeed as a language of protest, because Rabindranath Tagore as a symbol of protest is inconsistent in this era. According to Mahbub Morshed, the sculpture contained a message for Rabindra devotees and there is a significance behind the sculptures' disappearance.^[17]

According to Ajoy Dasgupta, Rabindranath is being used as a tool by the Leftist organizations in the name of free thought to provide support to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.^[18]