[Commons-Law] Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable

[Prashant Iyengar]

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Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable - IndianExpress.Com
Thu May 29 2008 13:46:30 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)
Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable

Amitabh Sinha

Posted online: Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 2320 hrs IST

New Delhi, May 28
The Government is likely to abandon its idea of framing a national
culture policy with a majority of members of a 19-member committee —
that was formed to look into the feasibility of such a proposition —
expressing their views against it. The committee, which held a meeting
on Wednesday, was unanimous in its opinion that a uniform cultural
policy in a multi-cultural country like India was neither desirable
nor feasible. Instead, the committee was of the view that there was a
need to define a broad roadmap for effective management and
administration of cultural institutions in the country.

"A national culture policy is sort of a misnomer. What the committee
would be attempting at is to recommend a policy for public action in
cultural institutions. This would not infringe upon the multi-cultural
character of the country," said Ashok Vajpayee, chairman of the Lalit
Kala Akademi, and one of the members of the committee.

Another member, on condition of anonymity, pointed out that in no
other country of the world, even in the most repressive regimes, any
such policy had been envisaged. "However, our cultural institutions
badly need reforms and the members were in agreement to frame
guidelines for effective management of these institutions," he said.

The member said any uniform cultural policy was liable to be misused
for political interests and there were hardly any benefits accruing
out of the move.

The national cultural policy has been a non-starter right from the
time the idea was mooted by the Culture Ministry towards the end of
2006. It had asked this committee to give recommendations for such a
policy to be framed. The six-month deadline for the committee had
expired in April last year. Only one meeting was held in the first six
months of its tenure and that too, was attended by only half of the
members.

With a number of members questioning the rationale for such a move,
the idea was almost junked, but the committee was not dissolved.
Recently, the ministry revived the idea and asked the committee to
hold fresh discussions and appraise it of its views.

The committee includes prominent personalities like U R Ananthamurthy,
Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, M T Vasudevan Nair, Ramachandra Guha,
Mallika Sarabhai. Only nine or 10 members could attend Wednesday's
meeting. Some members had also submitted their written submissions.