Nahar’s portrait was unveiled at the Assembly’s lower lobby by Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim. Beside officials and Nahar’s family members, Congress MLA Sudip Bandopadhyay, who is also the chairman of the Bijoy Singh Nahar birth centenary celebration committee, was present on the occasion.
Nahar was born at Azimgunge in 1906 and passed away in 1997. A member of the Indian National Congress, Nahar was a councillor of the Calcutta Corporation (1933-1944) and a member of the state Legislative Council in 1946-47. He was also a member of the state Assembly from 1957 to 1976. Besides being the Labour and Information Minister in the state’s Congress government from 1962 to 1967, Nahar was the deputy chief minister of the state for a brief stint in 1971. In 1977, he also won the Lok Sabha election and represented the Janata Party.
Trinamool MLA Ashok Deb said that his party was not informed about the function. “We didn’t know about the function. It was around 10.20 am (ten minutes before the commencement of the function) that the marshal came to tell us about it,” Deb told The Indian Express. Halim, however, maintained that invitation cards had been sent to all parties well in advance.
The function was not attended by the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Manas Bhunia. “I was invited and was supposed to attend the function, but got held up at a hospital,” he said. Bhunia rejected the claim made by the Trinamool leaders regarding the function. “The Speaker’s invitation had been sent to all the political parties through the Assembly secretariat day before yesterday. Everybody was well informed in advance,” he added.
Nahar’s family members participated in the ceremony. “All of us were here. I would have been happy had all (leaders) been present,” said Ratan Singh Nahar, son of the former deputy chief minister.
Leader of the Opposition and Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee alleged that the Left Front and the Congress are taking decisions on their own.
“We were not informed about the function. My secretary called me up this morning to say that a programme is taking place. He was informed about it by the Assembly’s marshal shortly before the programme was supposed to begin. It seems that the Congress office and the Alimuddin Street are deciding how things should move,” said Partha.