Hazarika family hails move to rename bridge
Tej Hazarika, the US-based son of Bhupen Hazarika, and Prabin Hazarika, the latter’s UK-based brother, have hailed the Narendra Modi government’s decision to name India’s longest bridge across the Brahmaputra after the iconic singer-composer.
Called the ‘Bard of Brahmaputra’, Hazarika passed away in November 2011, leaving behind a rich and vibrant body of work in music, literature and film that brought him a range of top honours, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
Named after Bhupen Hazarika, the 9.15km bridge linking Assam with Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border was inaugurated by Modi last week.
Leicester-based Prabin Hazarika told Hindustan Times the family was grateful to the Indian government for the honour, and hoped the bridge will also span across diversities, cultures and people in the north-east and elsewhere.
Tej said: “May it help the Northeast become the crown of India’s great diversity. Bhupen Hazarika had a vital message for all Indians. Let us pay it some mind and bring better education, opportunity and wealth to the descendants of ancestors, some of whom have lived in this region a long time before India’s epics were written.”
“And also, let us not forget, the region’s infrastructure is 10 years behind the rest of the country and the blame goes to a lot of players, not just one party. This is not a ‘blame’ game. It is infrastructure, to benefit everyone,” he added.
Tej Hazarika added that credit for the naming was due to many appeals by the people of Assam, but also to the prime minister “for his sensitivity regarding my father’s position in Assam”, and to the chief minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal. Last week, I spent time in two EU countries — Poland and Lithuania. I was watching birds, a passion mostly rolled out in India.
The ornithologists — different individuals in each case — took me to meadows where cows grazed on yellow wild flowers, to forests, fishing ponds, marshes and riversides.
In each case, we enjoyed sightings of birds in breeding plumage, a sight you don’t see in India because they don’t breed here, even if some of them migrate here every winter.
I was struck that such vast landscapes still existed and in many cases, they belonged to farmers.
The EU, with 500 bird species, has proactively made this happen.
Thanks to its Bird Directive, adopted originally in 1979,