Comrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI(C), has issued the following statement today :—
We severely condemn the most despotic muscle flexing by the Shiv Sena, a constituent of arch communal Sangh Parivar, in forcing the organizers to cancel the scheduled performances in Mumbai and Pune by Ghulam Ali, renowned gazal singer from Pakistan on the plea of that Pakistan is firing on Indian border. In fact, the singer was invited for presentation of concerts which many music-loving people in India appreciate and enjoy as mind-soothing rendition. By cancelling the programmes, the protagonists of so called Hindutva as well as the BJP-led governments, both at centre and in Maharashtra, have not only shown affront to such an eminent singer but also tarnished the image of the country before the whole world. This is no isolated an incident but part of the nefarious design of the RSS-BJP-Sangh Parivar to communally surcharge the country for disrupting people’s unity and reaping electoral benefit through communal polarization. While border tension and clashes between India and Pakistan would end only when the respective bourgeois rulers would sincerely desire to resolve the political issues amicably through bilateral dialogue, there is no reason whatsoever to stop cultural exchanges and sports between the two countries. In fact, it is the oppressive bourgeois rulers, their subservient governments and servitor forces who in their ulterior interest are trying to wedge a divide between the peace-loving people of the two neighbouring countries and thereby vitiating the atmosphere.
We appeal to the people of both countries not to acquiesce in such sinister moves of the vested interest of both the countries, force their respective bourgeois governments to firmly deal with the religious fundamentalist forces making deliberate attempt to disrupt amity and fraternity between them and unitedly demand more and more exchanges of sports and cultural activities to strengthen the tie between them.
