Bangabandhu's statue will stay at Baker Hostel: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asserted that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s bust will stay in Kolkata’s Baker Hostel and warned of actions against anyone against it.

“Bangabandhu is the inspiration for both Bangladesh and West Bengal. There is no question of removing the sculpture. Stern actions will be taken against those demanding its removal,” she said yesterday.

Mamata came down heavily in response to demands from a Muslim youth organisation - All Bengal Minority Youth Federation – as Indian media reports today, our Kolkata correspondent reports.

“Tradition can never be a subject to lease. Bangabandhu is revered and memorable to all the people of two Bengals,” she said.

Read more: Removal of Bangabandhu's statue from Baker Hostel sought

“Bangladesh’s war of independence is our inspiration and it is our duty to preserve the memory of Bangabandhu,” she also said adding any opposition to this end will not be tolerated.

The Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, stayed in the government dormitory as a student of Islamia College (now Maulana Azad College) in the 1940s.

The statue was installed on February 23, 2011. Earlier, rooms 23 and 24 of the hostel were recognised as Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.

A section of students on Tuesday brought out a procession towards Bangladesh deputy high commission on Bangabandhu Sarani in Kolkata and handed over a memorandum to a local police station.

According to the memorandum [The Daily Star has a copy] addressed to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, they came to learn via media on March 18 that a bust of Bangabandhu was installed at the hostel as West Bengal Communist Party leader Biman Bose had laid garland to the statue on March 17, the birthday of Bangabandhu.