Play gets offstage due to election blues

A critically-acclaimed English play, which did not go down well with some right-wing groups which claimed it hurts Hindu sentiments, was pulled off by organisers in Bangalore from a festival schedule citing election concerns.

"Ali J", by Chennai-based theatre group Evam, scheduled to be staged from March 12 to 16, was cancelled on the advice of the home department of Karnataka.
"A senior official from the home ministry has told us that at any other time they'd stand by us, but because it's election time, we must comply and not stage the show," Jagriti Theatre, where the play was planned to be staged, said on its website.

"Ali J" was in the eye of a storm after Hindu Janajaguruti Samiti termed it "anti-Hindu" and "anti-India", raising strong objections against its shows in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

The play dwells on the life of a Muslim man, Ali, who is on death row, awaiting his sentence for his alleged involvement in the 2002 Godhra riots, Evam said.
Asked about reasons cited by police while ordering the cancellation of the shows, Jagdish Raja, co-founder of Jagriti Theatre, said, "The inspector at Whitefield Police Station just said the 'higher authorities' had deputed him to ensure that the performance was not staged.

He was prepared to bring a case against us if we did go ahead."

According to Raja, the Karnataka Home department had said that "this play could be the trigger for a larger incident especially with the impending elections. We have been told that there will be no restrictions after the polls." "How can one attribute reason to an unreasonable position," he said when questioned why the protesting group labelled the play as "anti-Hindu" and "anti-India".

Hindu Janajaguruti Samiti, the group which objected to Ali J's performance, describes it a great success on its Facebook page and now banned website.
"Hindus should offer gratitude at feet of God for this success," a note on its portal read.

The protesting group, however, tried clearing its stand saying, "We are not 'fundamentalists' but true nationalists.
We are a team of educated youth protesting through legal ways".

"If someone is claiming of freedom of speech and art, then the same constitution also gives us the right to protest," Ramesh Shinde, nation spokesperson of Hindu Janajaguruti Samiti said.

He said the group protested against Ali J's show "to create awareness among citizens and to put an end to the degradation and denigration perpetrated by the so-called intellectuals under the guise of freedom of expression".

Shinde, who claimed to have seen the play, said the play sabotaged the image of the country as it portrayed terrorist Ajmal Kasab as a matryr.
"Our Team has seen the play and hence only we can mention dialogues in our memorandum," he said.

Shinde said the group sought "to set a precedent so that such digression of truth done blatantly and brazenly is not repeated".

"In January, 'Ali J' performed to two full houses against protests from fundamentalist groups but under heavy police protection and support from the artistic community. During Kala Ghoda Festival (Mumbai) - the show was called off a day before the performance after fundamentalists groups threatened violence. Police advised the organisers to refrain from performing and the organisers decide to play it safe and call it off," said Vasanth Subramaniam from Evam.

He said on March 9, two shows of the play were called off a day before the performance at Alliance Francaise in Chennai.

The protesting group filed a petition with the police, who then advised the organisers to abstain from staging the play.

Similarly, police stopped a performance five minutes before its scheduled start at Jagriti theatres in Bangalore.

The remainder of the six-show campaign was called off under directions from the Vidhan Soudha, he said.

Ironically, the play received rave reviews in Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2013 where it became the first Indian theatre production to perform a full run.