Veteran actor Amol Palekar's speech at NGMA interrupted for criticising government; video goes viral

As Palekar went on criticise a decision of the culture ministry, an NGMA member on the stage interrupted, saying that Palekar should talk about the event.

Amol Palekar/ File/ (Photo by Chirag Wakaskar/WireImage/ Getty Images)

New Delhi: An art exhibition at Mumbai’s National Gallery of Modern Art took a controversial turn when veteran Bollywood actor and director Amol Palekar was muzzled during his speech as he questioned a decision of culture ministry. The yesteryear actor will be holding a press conference on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm to speak about the same. While Palekar was speaking at the inauguration of an exhibition “Inside the Empty Box”, he was interrupted several times by some members of the gallery, on Friday evening. The video of the incident has gone viral on social media platforms and has now made to the headlines.  The exhibition was organised in the memory of artist Prabhakar Barwe. In the video, Palekar can be seen criticising the Ministry of Culture for reportedly scrapping the advisory committees at the gallery's Mumbai and Bengaluru centres. Referring to these reports, Palekar said, "Many of you may not know that this retrospective will be the last show decided by the advisory committee of local artists and not by some bureaucrat or an agent of the government with an agenda of either moral policing or proliferation of certain art commensurate with an ideological incline.” "As of November 13, 2018, the artistes' advisory committees at both regional centres  Mumbai and Bangalore have been abolished, is what I have learnt," he said. He added that he was "in the process of verifying the hearsay". At this point, an NGMA member on the stage interrupted, saying that Palekar should talk about the event. To which, Palekar responded, "I am going to talk about the same. Are you you applying censorship to that?" He then said that as per his information, after the abolition of local artists' committee, decisions as to whose work should be exhibited would be taken from Delhi by the Ministry of Culture. At this point, Palekar was interrupted again by a woman, who said, "This is not needed at the moment, sorry....The function is about Prabhakar Barwe, please stick to that." Palekar who refused to stop, and went on to relate an incidence where famous writer Nayantara Sahgal was invited to speak at the Marathi literary convention, but at the last minute her invitation was cancelled because what she was going to say "was slightly critical of the situation around us." "Are we creating the same situation here?" palekar asked. The video of the incident was shared by former Congress MP Annu Tandon. She wrote on Twitter: “Just got this video of one of my favourite actors, Amol Palekar, being cut off while ruing the loss of independence in art at @mumbai_ngma simply because he seemed critical of a Ministry of Culture/NGMA decision. This is what #intolerance in the present times is all about. Sad!”

Just got this video of one of my favourite actors, Amol Palekar, being cut off while ruing the loss of independence in art at @mumbai_ngma simply because he seemed critical of a Ministry of Culture/NGMA decision.

This is what #intolerance in the present times is all about. Sad! pic.twitter.com/u8L30qeiz7 — Annu Tandon (@AnnuTandonUnnao) February 9, 2019

(with PTI inputs)