West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has criticized the National School of Drama (NSD) over the script of a play that praises Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming Jan Bharat Rang programme. In response to the education minister’s criticism the school said that it was only a script and that groups were free to create their own presentations. Let us tell you Jan Bharat Rang is an initiative by the Drama School to bring together 2,000 short performances to mark the conclusion of the ongoing Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

Bratya Basu

Bratya Basu further added, “Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP government at the Center has sent a short play in praise of the Honorable Prime Minister to all the theater groups of West Bengal and asked them to perform it everywhere.” He also claimed that failure to comply with the instructions will result in withdrawal of generous grants and subsidies from the Centre.

Bratya Basu

Responding to Bratya Basu’s claims, NSD registrar Pradeep K Mohanty said the institute never forced theater groups to follow the script as it was only for reference. Mohanty further said, theater is a creative field and reference scripts were sent so that the groups could create even better scripts. A script was sent to the groups. However, groups are free to develop scripts based on the themes set by NSD.

Bratya Basu

He said various performing arts groups would still have to present their dramatic, dance and musical performances at the program on the themes of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, “Panch Prana” and “Vikshit Bharat”. At a press conference on Thursday, NSD director Chittaranjan Tripathi said participation in the program is voluntary and the organization has not forced anyone to be a part of it. Well what is going to happen on this issue is still questionable and we need to see what happens next in this series.