Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said some people want to create confrontation between culture and religions but the culture has no clash with the religions.
“Religions are for individuals, but festivals are for all. We celebrate our festivals together," she said referring to previous incidents on that issue, including the attack on Pahela Baishakh celebrations.
The prime minister was addressing a ceremony arranged to inaugurate the newly constructed buildings of Shilpakala Academies in eight districts -- Dhaka, Kushtia, Khulna, Jamalpur, Narayanganj, Pabna, Manikganj, Moulvibazar and Rangpur.
The programme was held at Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka. The prime minister joined the event from Ganabhaban. The offices of the deputy commissioners of the eight districts were remotely connected to it.
The premier stressed the need for protecting Bengali culture and heritage particularly area-based ones alongside the culture of small ethnic groups and tribal people.
She also advocated for knowing the modern culture and musical equipment by protecting the local culture and heritage and thus flourishing our own culture.
Sheikh Hasina said they had faced obstruction to observing the Pahela Baishakh-1414 when they were in opposition and even people were killed by bombings at Ramna Batamul aimed at stopping Bengali cultural practises.
The Pahela Baishakh is the only festival that is celebrated by all, she said, adding that this year, the festival will be celebrated on a limited scale after two years of hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
She however asked all to take precautionary measures as the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to end, despite it being under control.
A documentary on the newly-constructed buildings of Shilpakala Academies in the eight districts was also screened at the function.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid and Secretary of Cultural Affairs Ministry Md Abul Monsur spoke on the occasion while Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Director General Liaquat Ali Lucky gave the welcome address.
The design of the eight districts’ Shilpakala Academies’ buildings was formulated by highlighting the districts' cultural heritage and history.
Each of the buildings has all the required modern facilities including a modern sound system and open stage.
Sheikh Hasina said her government, after assuming power in 1996, had taken every possible measure to flourish the Bengali culture and heritage as the post-1975 governments had no idea and zeal about the culture.
The prime minister asked all concerned to work to further spread the distinctiveness of the Bengali culture across the globe.
In a bid to enrich the Bengali culture and provide scope to the people to practise it largely, she said her government has a plan to build a cultural complex in all upazilas across the country.
"We will build a cultural complex in all 493 upazilas across the country so that our children from each upazila can get the opportunity to flourish their talents and do cultural practises," she said.
The prime minister asked all concerned to build the multipurpose hall in the cultural complex on the upazila level in such a way that cinemas including feature films and short films could be screened.
"So, you have to prepare the projects keeping that in your mind," she said, adding that then the people will get a chance to be amused.
Sheikh Hasina said that the practises of the Bengali culture would have to be continued.
"We must not forget our tradition, and at the same time, we have to go with the trend of the new era. Our children need to cope with modern culture and they have to adopt and practise that," she said.
She put emphasise attaining knowledge of modern technology alongside practising and protecting Bengali tradition.
She said that tradition, modern technology and knowledge cannot be separated from each other.
The prime minister said that people from all religions along with small ethnic group lives in Bangladesh.
"We have created scope to flourish all cultures," she said, adding special attention needs to enrich those further.
The premier said that a country is urgently needed to practise its own culture for its further progress.
She stressed the need for required measures to enrich the area based cultures such as songs, literature, Jatra, Kobi Gaan and others.
"These are our invaluable assets and we have to give special attention to its progress," she said.
Sheikh Hasina reiterated that her government has allocated a fund of Tk 10.00 billion to modernise the old cinema halls, build new ones and overall development of the film industry.
She urged the owners of the halls to avail the opportunity and modernise their cinema halls.
