Amol Parekar On Controversy: “If I Don’t Raise Questions On NGMA At NGMA, Then Where Should I?”

There couldn’t have been a better platform than the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) to raise the questions that he did, says veteran actor-director Amol Palekar, who was interrupted at the venue here when he became critical of the government.

Last week, at the NGMA, Palekar was invited as a guest speaker at the opening of an exhibition in memory of artist Prabhakar Barwe. He was stopped midway as he expressed concern over policy changes that will give the Ministry of Culture at the Centre the sole right to decide the contents and themes of exhibitions to be held at the NGMA in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Palekar said there’s nothing to be “shocked” about what happened.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. How did you react when you were told on stage, in not so many words, to shut up?

A. I was disturbed. Breaking all norms of decency… So I was disturbed. But I kept my composure and maintained my decorum, although the line of decency was crossed on stage.

Q. What exactly is the background for this rude intervention that you had to face on stage?

A. Have you seen my full speech? It is on the net. Please read it. I was only allowed to say half the things that I was meant to (on stage).

Q. This is not an atmosphere conducive to a healthy debate?

A. It is not. That’s what I was trying to say after I was stopped from speaking. The justification on their part for interrupting me… and they insist that they were not interrupting me but requesting me… Was it inappropriate on my part to raise these issues on a platform like this. But my argument is, in fact this was just the right platform to raise the issue because I was raising questions related to the NGMA.

I began by speaking about Barwe, how I personally knew him and what I thought of him as an artiste and his art. I can immodestly say that I was the only speaker at the event who spoke about Barwe’s art.