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Protest against NSD’s “exclusionary policy”

Photo: Anu Pushkarna

On a different stage: Theatre workers of Delhi staging a protest against the exclusion of national theatre from Bharat Rang Mahotsav, at Mandi House in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Theatre personalities from the Capital staged a protest at the Pushkin statue near the Mandi House roundabout on Wednesday against exclusion of national theatre from Bharat Rang Mahotsav being organised by the National School of Drama here beginning Thursday.

“Except for those from its own graduates, all national entries have been barred this year. However, the NSD has retained foreign entries, adding insult to injury. We are shocked to learn that the NSD has even tampered with the title of the festival in order to subvert its own mandate. It has renamed ‘Bharat Rang Mahotsav’ as mere ‘Theatre Utsav’ since last year,” alleged a member of the Delhi chapter of Abhivyakti Abhiyaan on Wednesday.

“We would like to remind the NSD that it is a mere nodal agency of the Union Government for conducting the national festival. India is a country with several national theatres being practised in many languages and diverse styles. At a time when the theatre movement in the country is facing a severe ecological crisis, the NSD should have become more inclusive rather than becoming exclusive and elitist,” he said.

The theatre workers want the Union Culture Ministry to intervene in the matter and “correct the situation”. “We would like to remind the present establishment that the NSD has in the past participated in the building of a healthy theatre movement in India and that is how it acquired its present status. But the current policy of exclusiveness is eroding its credibility among the theatre people. This is making the NSD subservient to the entertainment industry,” claimed a theatre activist.

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