As many as fourteen artistes from West Bengal have brought out a Bangla version of screenwriter-lyricist Varun Grover’s popular protest poem Hum Kaagaz Nahin Dikhayenge (We Will Not Show Our Papers) to mark their opposition to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).
In the video, titled Kagoj Amra Dekhabo Na, renowned film personalities such as Konkana Sen Sharma, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Swastika Mukherjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Chitrangada Satarupa and Tillotama Shome, child rights activist Nandana Sen, Dalit writer Manoranjan Byapari, popular singer Rupam Islam, fashion designer Ayushman Mitra among others join the chorus against CAA and NRC.
Grover had first tweeted a short video of himself reciting the poem ‘Kagaz Nahi Dikhayenge‘ on December 21st, 2019. In the video, he mentioned that the poem was not copyrighted, and anybody was free “to use, adapt, sing and modify” it. Grover wrote that it was “inspired by the spirit of every protestor and India-lover. With hat-tips to Rahat Indori Saab and the Bangla slogans.”
This protest video comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited West Bengal, where he met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, followed by a visit to Belur Math, on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary.
Banerjee told reporters that said she asked Modi to rethink the CAA, NRC and the NPR as West Bengal is “unhappy” about it.
Photo credit: Screengrab from video tweeted by @aviksahaindia
