Mamata Banerjee opens Jashn-E-Iqbal, honours Iqbal

The grandson of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Waleed Iqbal came all the way from Pakistan to receive the honour Tarana-e-Hind conferred on the great poet posthumously.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sultan Ahmed, Sougata Roy, Ahmed Hasan Imran, ministers Arup Biswas, Javed Ahmed Khan, Firhad (Bobby) Hakim and the mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee were present at the inaugural ceremony.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal's grandson Waleed Iqbal came from Lahore.

Waleed Iqbal honoured Mamata Banerjee with the title of Pasbaan-e-Urdu (Defender of Urdu) for promoting the Urdu language here in West Bengal.

Mamata Banerjee conferred the title of Tarana-e-Hind posthumously to Muhammad Iqbal which was received by his grandson Waleed Iqbal.

After getting the award, Waleed Iqbal said that he was feeling very proud to have received this award from the land of Rabindranath Tagore.

"Mamata Banerjee is a very popular name in Pakistan. Her political and administrative policies are practised in my country. I am very happy today and want to say her- thanks," he said.  

Mamata Banerjee said  Urdu is going to be the second language in 10% schools.

Talking about Muhammad Iqbal, Mamata said that Iqbal was a great figure in the field of Urdu literature. "Every country should start research on Iqbal's life and writings. This programme will be organized every year here," she added.

She also proposed the Alia University to form a Urdu language department. "Our government is ready to help to move Urdu language forward," Banerjee said.

Jashn-E-Iqbal will be celebrated till May 31.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)