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  Fortnightly
column By Shanta Serbjeet Singh will explore, investigate and elucidate cultural news straight from the heart of imperial Delhi e-mail: shanta.serbjeetsingh@gmail.com This fortnightly column (on the 1st and 15th of each month) will explore, investigate and elucidate cultural news straight from the heart of imperial Delhi, its corridors of power, its newly spruced up galleries of officialdom at the Shastri Bhavans and the Azad Bhavans, from all those fiefdoms of policy-making where they first take birth, are shaped and minted. It will also bring you details of mega sarkari events such as festivals and special celebrations, much before they happen, to empower the creative person. The importance of culture as an arm of diplomacy can best be illustrated by the fact that P Chidambram, our erstwhile Finance Minister, doubled the budget of ICCR last year without even being asked to do so - definitely a first of its kind! The world of creativity is too important to India's health to be denied its right to transparency. Mind you, it never was a strong point in any department of our civic life and certainly not a concern of the power elite. With the media, the only watchdog that we had earlier, having shut its doors to serious cultural issues and replaced them with "entertainment," a euphemism for soft porn, it is now a free-for-all situation. Those of us who value our artistes and their contribution to the Idea of India, then, have to find alternate forums for having our voice heard. |
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