Kolkata: Artistes from Bengal complained of harassment and humiliation at the traditional North American Bengali Conference (NABC) 2023 that was held in New Jersey. Renowned artistes namely Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, Jayati Chakraborty and Anindya Chattopadhyay sparked a debate after they shared their bitter experiences on the social media.
The event was organised from June 30 to July 2 and several noted musicians including Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, Pandit Tejendranarayan Majumder, Pandit Anindya Chatterjee, Jayati Chakraborty and Raghab Chatterjee reached Atlanta to participate at it. This apart, dramatists like Debashankar Halder, Sohini Sengupta, Anirban Bhattacharya, Anirban Chakraborty and Suman Mukherjee also took part in the event.
Artists complained they were subjected to harassment since the day they arrived there. They pointed out at the lack of arrangements of food and drinks on arrival to absence of people to guide them to the hotel. According to them, there was nobody to welcome the artistes or inform them about the programme schedules. Also, complaints of not being given their dues have been levelled against the organisers.
Pandit Ajay Chakraborty has sent an e-mail to the organisers listing down the complaints, which has gone viral on social media. In his e-mail, the artist wrote, "I didn't expect there would be no vehicle for us and lunch would arrive at 4 pm. We couldn't even enter our hotel rooms and were compelled to wait outside. I am respected even by the Chief Minister and Prime Minister. But, here I was humiliated in this manner. I didn't get the respect I deserved."
Musician Anindya Chatterjee, who shared Ajay Chakraborty's e-mail on his Facebook page, expressed his disappointment over the incident. "If India's senior-most legendary artist has to write such a letter, then what is the use of Bengali conference? Does Pandit Ajay Chakraborty deserve this disrespect? How low will Bengalis sink?" he questioned.
A similar complaint has been registered by artist Jayati Chakraborty, who went live on Facebook against a section of the organisers. She directly targeted one of the organisers named Abhik Dasgupta, on whose invitation she went to the Bengali conference. Jayati said: "Abhik Dasgupta doesn't know how to respect artists. He thinks he is doing us a favour by taking us to Banga conference and paying us. We artists expect some courtesy and respect. We were extremely ill-treated. No food was offered for 12-14 hours after we arrived. Many artists were not even allowed to perform while many others didn't get their dues. You have seen Pandit Ajay Chakraborty's post. I can't accept Guruji's disrespect".
When contacted by ETV Bharat, Jayati Chakraborty said, "Right now I'm on my way back home. I'm going to the airport. Not everyone is coming back today. Apart from me, Raghavda (Raghav Chatterjee), Sahana Banerjee and Tejenda (Tejendranarayan Majumdar) are returning today. Rest will return later. I have told all about the NABC experience on my Facebook Live. There is nothing more to say."
