Celebrated Baul singer Purna Das Baul on Wednesday asked chief minister Suvendu Adhikari to help him get back his farmland in the Birbhum district, which he alleged had been grabbed by a former Trinamool Congress strongman.
Baul, the 93-year-old master of Bengal’s folk music tradition, approached Adhikari in a wheelchair at his public outreach programme at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Salt Lake office, accompanied by his son, Dibyendu Das. He received the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian awards, in 2013. Purna Das Baul said a four-bigha land parcel in Ilambazar, Birbhum, was grabbed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I had never imagined this in my life. I am shocked. It is not that they (accused) don’t know me. Even I know them. He did not, however, identify the culprits. “We met the chief minister. He gave us a patient hearing.
I approached the chief minister to get my land back,” he said, underlining that he had approached the TMC chief and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee too but did not get justice. “The chief minister assured me that he will give my land back to me,” said Baul, who was described as a Baul Samrat (Emperor of Bauls) in the 1960s by President Dr Rajendra Prasad. Asked who had forcibly occupied the family’s land, his son said Kesto Mandal alias Anubrata Mondal. The chief minister has assured that we will get our land back,” Dibyendu Das said.
Baul, who popularised the philosophy and Baul music for decades. Over a career spanning more than half a century, he has collaborated with Western cultural figures including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Joan Baez, and the poet Allen Ginsberg.
