Delhi’s Culture Minister, Kapil Mishra wrote on his official twitter page: “Sad that #GhulamAli is not being allowed in Mumbai, I invite him to come to Delhi and do the concert”. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “Music has no boundaries”.
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While the cancellation of the concert has attracted widespread criticism, Ali too has expressed his disappointment. Whenever his fans called him with love, he would go and perform. Thus after the Gazal Maestro’s event was cancelled by political pressure group, Shiv Sena. “I hope the Indian government will act responsibly and the world’s largest secular democracy will raise itself above people’s dietary choices”, Fakhr-e-Alam, chairman of Pakistan’s Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC), told IANS.
“I’m very hurt. I have always got love in India”.
Aadesh Bandekar, a TV artiste and a close associate of Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, said that even though the party respects the talent of those from across the border, it “will not allow citizens of Pakistan to work here and make money”.
Shiv Sena cancelled the Pakistani legend’s concert because apparently they did not want the state to be associated culturally with the country.
Afterward, Ghulam Ali, in an interview, stated that he was not annoyed, but really upset.
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was quoted by NDTV saying, “What the Sena is doing with Ghulam Ali is absolutely wrong. They are against us why should we let their singers perform here”, said Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary of Shiv Sena’s umbrella organisation Chitrapat Sena.
Randhir Roy, business head and founder of Panache Media, a Mumbai-based event management group that organises Ek Ehsas Concerts across India featuring the singer, said the “point these guys (the Sena) are raising in the latter is valid”.
Justifying the Shiv Sena’s opposition to Ghulam Ali concerts scheduled later this week in Maharashtra, Thackeray claimed the move was in support of Indian armed forces that were “grappling terror on the borders”. “When there are constant ceasefire violations, our jawans are beheaded; we can not be having fun with them”. “This should not be seen as an India-Pakistan issue”.
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Sources from the Sena said though the party is in a coalition with the BJP, it won’t alter its stance on relations with Pakistan if it continued killing Indians.
