lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 06, 2020 16:42 IST

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination for the Varanasi Lok Sabha Seat, Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan’s grandson Nasir Abbas said he wished he were invited to be one of the proposers for PM Modi.

“It would have been good if I were invited to be proposer of PM Modi. Anyway, we are happy.”

Abbas, his brothers Shad Abbas, Haji Hasan and few other members were present outside the Collectorate during the nomination of PM Modi.

“I wanted to be part of PM Modi’s nomination team as a proposer. I wrote an open letter to him revealing my desire. But they didn’t invite me. There might be some reasons for not inviting me. They (The BJP) must have thought something,” Abbas said, sitting in a room at his house in Harha Sarai area. He said that he went with his son Ghazi Abbas to Kutchehary to express their support to PM Modi.

The shehnai maestro’s grandson said that the government should set up an institute of Shehnai learning in Varanasi and promote learning of the art of playing shehnai in order that the great art of playing shehnai could be preserved and carried forward. He added that the institute should be in the name of Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan.

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Nasir Abbas said that the shehnai players like him should be appointed as trainer in the institute so that shehnai aspirants could learn it well. He hopes that PM Modi would pay attention to his demand after the election.

“We are musicians. We are simple people. What our heart says, we do. I felt that I should be proposer of PM Modi and I wrote the letter, revealing my wish. Why they didn’t invite me, they would know better,” Nasir said.

Nasir wrote an open letter to PM Modi, expressing his desire that he wanted to be part of team Modi’s proposers on April 10.

BJP Kashi region spokesperson Navratan Rathi said, “Ustad’s grandson expressed his desire to be proposer a bit late. Before that names of all four proposers were finalised. His name, therefore, could not be included in the list of proposers. There is no other reason behind it.”

Four proposers of PM Modi include Dom Raja’s descendant Jagdish Chaudhary, Prof Annpurna Shukla, retired scientist Dr Ramashankar Patel, and senior BJP leader Subhash Gupta. They were present during PM Modi’s nomination.