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Wouldn't have gone for NGMA event if I knew about diktat not to criticise govt: Amol Palekar

After his speech was interrupted at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Friday, veteran actor and director Amol Palekar today stated that the curator of the exhibition was issued a diktat that government should not be criticised from the platform. "The curator never told me about the diktat before the event. Had they told me about such diktat, I would not gone for the event," Palekar said here on Sunday.

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After his speech was interrupted at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Friday, veteran actor and director Amol Palekar today stated that the curator of the exhibition was issued a diktat that government should not be criticised from the platform. "The curator never told me about the diktat before the event. Had they told me about such diktat, I would not gone for the event," Palekar said here on Sunday.

The veteran actor also stated that he is not deterred by the incident and he will continue to speak against the censorship. "What was more disheartening that no established artist who were present at the event came in support when I was being interrupted," Palekar said here today.

Palekar was one of the speakers at the event held at NGMA in Mumbai on Friday evening. The event was to inaugurate exhibition of the work of noted artist Prahbakar Barwe. Palekar said that when he was being critical of the functioning of NGMA which comes under the ministry of Culture, his speech was interrupted by the NGMA director, the curator of the event and some past committee members of NGMA.

 "Due to the interruption, I had to omit some part of my speech. Jesal Thacker, the curator of the event also interrupted my speech and in her respect, I concluded my speech." Palekar sad.

He also stated that after the event Thacker told him that she should not have interrupted him. "Post event, Thacker told me that she had given a diktat by the director of NGMA that there should not be any criticism against the government. She also confessed that she never told me about it before the event but later she retracted from her statement," Palekar said.

Referring the issues that Palekar wanted to raise in speech, he said, "NGMA has taken a decision that henceforth, only the top floor that is the dome of NGMA will be given for artists for their exhibition while the remaining four floors will be used by NGMA to only exhibit its collection. The dome is a very small space I thought as an artist, I should raise objection against such decision."

 

"How can an exhibition of world class artists be held at small dome. I wanted to raise these issues and what could be the more appropriate platform that this to raise issues related to NGMA," Palekar said.

 

Palekar also stated that he will continue advocate against the censorship. "I have been fighting against the censorship and curtailment of freedom of expression. Such censorship keeps on haunting us in different forms and Friday's incident was one such example, but I will continue to raise my voice," the actor said.

 

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