Syed Jamil Ahmed’s allegations are false, says cultural affairs ministry
The ministry of cultural affairs has responded to the allegations, theatre personality Syed Jamil Ahmed has raised as the reasons behind his resignation from the post of the director general (DG) of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The ministry in a notice published on Sunday claimed the allegations made by Syed Jamil Ahmed are false, misleading and in some cases fictional.
Syed Jamil Ahmed resigned from the Shilpakala Academy this Friday. He raised various allegations including interference in his work and asking for fund to make a video without sending any letter.
On this issue, the ministry said Sunday in a notice that the reasons Syed Jamil Ahmed has listed include some false and misleading information concerning the ministry of cultural affairs and the finance division. There are also false, fictitious and personally attacking statements regarding Mostafa Sarwar Farooki, the adviser for the ministry of cultural affairs.
The ministry of cultural affairs says the allegations made by the Shilpakala Academy director general about pressurising to release fund without letters for making a video, is completely false and made-up. There was an event at the UNESCO headquarters on 20-21 February, marking the 25-year anniversary of International Mother Language Day.
A letter was sent to the Shilpakala Academy on 2 February to make a 15-minute video highlighting Bangladesh’s contribution to preserving the history of International Mother Language Day to be shown at that event. When requested to give some advance payment to the director as customary, the director general of the academy behaved discourteously.
The DG denied the request from the adviser of the ministry saying that the fund won’t be released without a budget allocation. Yet, the director general had earlier taken the initiative to implement an event for Sadhu Mela at a cost of about Tk 3.3 million only at the verbal request of the adviser. A letter was sent in this regard afterwards.
The ministry says the ministry usually on emergency consideration has its agencies move forward with the work this way. However, they had already sent a letter beforehand this time.
Regarding Syed Jamil Ahmed’s allegation of interference with the activities of the Shilpakala Academy, the ministry says that they did not interfere with any activities of the Shilpakala Academy. There is no precedence, where the ministry has told the Shilpakala Academy to stop any of their activities. Rather, the work of the art has always been encouraged.
When there arose some problems regarding the organisation of the events of Baul community in some parts of Bangladesh, the ministry had then advised the Shilpakala Academy to double the number of ‘Sadhu Mela’ event for them and allocated extra fund for that.
The ministry of cultural affairs has claimed Syed Jamil Ahmed’s allegations regarding the annual budget allocation are baseless. The ministry said that the issue of budget allocation in any fiscal year is entirely within the jurisdiction of the ministry of finance. Heads of all the departments of the ministry of cultural affairs, including the Shilpakala Academy were present for bargaining at the budget allocation meeting of the ministry of finance on 27 February.
On behalf of the Shilpakala Academy, a total budget of Tk 2 billion (Tk 200 crore) was presented there for the repair and renovation of rickety Shilpakala Academy buildings in various districts.
Addressing the agency heads, the finance secretary at the beginning of the meeting said that the budgets would be slashed a bit due to the economic crisis and some limitations. However, it has been said regarding the Shilpakala Academy that necessary funds would be allocated if separate projects are taken up.
The proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year has kept an allocation for the Shilpakala Academy, which is even higher than the running year. The ministry of cultural affairs says that the allegations about the insufficient budget are completely baseless and a manifestation of administrative inefficiency.
The ministry of cultural affairs has raised allegations of not allowing officials of the Shilpakala Academy to attend state events on various excuses.
Besides, the ministry also denied allegations of ‘unnecessarily’ withholding approval of the agenda of the council meeting of Shilpakala Academy and gave an explanation for that.