A citizens’ convention in Kolkata on constitutional rights and the demand for a credible voter list will be held in the open after organisers said bookings at two city venues were cancelled, citing reasons that included technical problems and the proposed press conference’s opposition to the state and central governments.
The convention is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at the grounds of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Culture and Research Centre on AJC Bose Road. Construction of the centre has not yet begun, according to the report, leaving organisers to arrange the event in an open-air setting. Actor Prakash Raj and former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa are expected to speak at the programme.
The organisers had initially planned to hold the convention at Kalamandir. They also said a press conference scheduled at the Academy of Fine Arts was cancelled. At a press conference on Saturday, former Kolkata mayor and lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said the organisers had faced repeated obstacles in securing venues for both the convention and the media briefing.
Bhattacharyya presented booking-related documents to journalists and said Kalamandir had cited technical problems for cancelling the booking. He also said the Academy of Fine Arts had cancelled the press conference. According to the documents read out at the briefing, the Academy’s written explanation referred to the proposed press conference being against the state and central governments.
“We are being forced to hold the press conference in such a place,” Bhattacharyya said, describing the situation as an “undeclared emergency”. His account was supported at the briefing by former Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar, educationist Pabitra Sarkar and former Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Ashoknath Bose.
The report does not include comments from Kalamandir or the Academy of Fine Arts responding to the organisers’ account. It also does not establish whether the cancellations were the result of a common administrative decision or separate venue-level actions. The available documents, as described by the organisers, are central to their allegation that the event faced institutional restrictions.
The episode places Kolkata’s cultural and civic venues at the centre of a wider question about access to public meeting spaces. Such venues are not only performance locations; they are also used for press conferences, public discussions and political or civic gatherings. When bookings are cancelled, the stated reason and the documentation behind the decision become important to determining whether the issue is operational, contractual or related to the content of an event.
The convention’s organisers have said they will proceed at the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya centre’s grounds. The programme is expected to focus on citizens’ constitutional rights and the demand for a reliable voter list, with the scheduled participation of Prakash Raj and Ashok Lavasa.
