Regional artistes oppose winterline carnival

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, December 20

Opposition to the winterline carnival scheduled to be held in Mussoorie from December 25 to 30 is getting stronger by the day.

Regional artistes held a dharna against the winterline carnival at the Shaheed Sthal here today. Earlier a Municipal Council ward member had opposed the carnival.

The artistes reached the Shaheed Sthal with their musical instruments and registered their opposition to the carnival by singing folk songs for nearly two hours. They said they were against the autocratic attitude of the organising committee headed by the Dehradun District Magistrate “that is trying to wipe out the culture of the region and promote artistes from other states by paying them handsome amounts”.

The protesters alleged that the winterline carnival committee, which had no role in the statehood agitation, was conspiring to annihilate the region’s culture by not engaging regional artistes.

Noted regional artiste Jitendar Panwar said the town through autumn festivals held in the past had played an important role in launching new regional stars at the national level.

“However, this is not happening at the winterline carnival and regional artistes are being humiliated in various ways,” he said.

Regional film director Pradeep Bhandari said state’s people sacrificed their lives not to see officials consuming liquor and dancing for their recreation. Last year, officials said regional artistes were in for better times, but nothing had been done in this regard so far.

He said the objective of spreading the region’s culture in the country had been defeated due to the anti-hill people attitude of the committee members. The bias against regional artistes was evident from the fact that no picture of any regional artiste figured in the posters of the carnival released here.

The artists said development works had not taken up in Mussoorie, but the administration was bent upon wasting several crores of rupees on the carnival, that has failed to bring in tourists in the past too.

The artists said they would continue their protest during the carnival period by singing and dancing in protest on Mall Road if the organising committee and the district administration did not change their partisan ways.

They appealed to like-minded people to “foil the administration and the carnival committee’s attempt to wipe out the area’s culture”. Regional poets Gambhir Singh Jayada, Sandeep Rana, and Anil Godiyal took part in the protest.

Member of the organising committee Rajat Agarwal refuted the charges. He said more than 12 artistes from Uttarakhand would take part in the carnival. Prominent among these are Sangeeta Dhaundiyal, Reshma Shah, Hema Negi, Poonam Sati, Lata Tiwari, Mahendar Singh Chauhan, Kamal Kishore, Vinod Bijalwan, Sahib Singh Ramola Diwan Prem and Dinesh Chand Kandpal.