MARGAO: Tiatr lovers from across Goa are enraged by the government’s decision to organise a competition in which participants have to only sing praises of the government’s achievements. The competition is being organised by the Department of Information and Publicity in collaboration with the Tiatr Academy of Goa (TAG).
Across the State, tiatr lovers have questioned the government’s move, which is reportedly aimed at disseminating information about government schemes.
Meanwhile, government sources have defended the concept and claimed there has been a good response from participants. Incidentally, the competition comes with lucrative cash prizes.
However, tiatr lovers have pointed out that the idea goes against the essence of tiatr, which is a mirror of society and current events. They stated that tiatr has always been at the forefront of calling a spade a spade and using the stage and ‘Kantar’ to constructively criticise the government.
The government’s decision to hold the competition comes after its repeated attempts to curtail the freedom of tiatrists and try to prevent them from singing anything that paints the government in a negative light.
It is to be noted that TAG receives funding from the State government. Sources at the TAG said that this is a programme of the Department of Information and Publicity in collaboration with TAG where the contestants have to sing about the government schemes and achievements.
Dr Francisco Colaco has criticised TAG and called upon tiatrists to boycott the competition. He added that it was a shameful action of the BJP-led government.
“This appears to be a platform to spread their propaganda. There are other means to create awareness about government schemes and the same money could have been used to reach out to the public, but not by diluting what tiatr has stood for. This will set a bad precedent and will open the doors for the government to push their agenda on tiatr,” said Manuel Quadros
from Margao.
“This is another disguised way of clamping down on a platform known to express dissent,” quipped Salvador Rodrigues from Nuvem.
The competition ‘Konkani Konkani Utsav’ will be held on March 8 in Panjim.
