By IANS,
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Tuesday condemned the Hooghly district administration action in stopping a play, terming the action “improper” and “not to be supported”.
“In our state, there is no restriction on staging of plays and cultural events based on political ideas or themes. The Left Front government does not believe in preventing any such play or themes and the government is following this tradition since 1977. And I feel that yesterday’s (Monday) incident in Hooghly is improper,” said Bhattacharjee in a statement issued by his office.
This statement came after intellectuals and theatre personalities criticised the government for barring the play “Poshu Khamar” based on George Orwell’s anti-establishment novel ‘Animal Farm’ and directed by Arpita Ghosh, who is known to be pro-Trinamool Congress intellectual.
District Magistrate Sripriya Rengarajan asked the officials concerned to stop the play as prior police permission was not taken. But her decision came after a former Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Roopchand Pal lodged a complaint with her that the performance would be used as a campaigning tool to “tarnish the image of the party”.
“Violation of election model code of conduct was not the reason for banning the play from being staged. No police permission was sought and hence we had to stop the play,” Rengarajan said Monday.
Special officer in-charge of the information and cultural affairs department Niloy Ghosh said Rengarajan has been asked to submit a detailed report.
Asked about it, Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said: “I have to enquire from the DM (district) to know the matter in detail and then I will be able to comment on the matter.”