Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal, has cited a tweet by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from October 2015 regarding the cancellation of a concert by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai due to threats from the Shiv Sena as a political brawl has broken out over the cancellation of a popular playback singer Arijit Singh concert at the Eco Park in Kolkata scheduled for early next year.
Banerjee extended an invitation to Ghulam Ali to perform in Kolkata through Twitter on October 8, 2015, following the cancellation of his performance.
“Music knows no limits. Heartbeat is the rhythm of music. Kolkata may host a concert by Ghulam Ali Ji. All arrangements will be made, Mamata Banerjee said in a post.
In reference to that tweet, Adhikari posted a new tweet on Thursday asking the Chief Minister why he wasn’t being as understanding of Arijit Singh. “When it comes to Pakistani Ghulam Ali, music knows no bounds, but the situation is different for Hindustani Arijit Singh,” he stated.
The singer allegedly paid a fee for performing the well-known song “Gerua” in Banerjee’s presence at the recent opening of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which was also attended by prominent Bollywood figures including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Rani Mukherjee.
Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP’s IT cell and the party’s observer for West Bengal, and Indranil Khan, state president of the party’s youth wing in West Bengal, launched attacks on the Trinamool Congress and the state administration on Twitter in response to this.
Firhad Hakim, the mayor of Kolkata and the state’s minister for urban development affairs, refuted these accusations, saying that all events in the ECO Park at that period had been postponed in light of the G20 summit.