December 9, 2010 (Sampurn Wire):Our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been approached by different kinds of people with various demands throughout these years. But on Wednesday, he had to listen patiently to some musical demands made by top classical musicians of the country.
The recently-formed All-India Musicians Groups members, consisting of some renowned classical musicians came to meet the Prime Minister to draw the UPA governments attention towards the promotion of the classical music and other classical art forms by taking different measures. The team consisted of Birju Maharaj, Hariprasad Churasia, Sudha Raghunathan, Zakir Hussain, Shivkumar Sharma, Arvind Parikh, Ajoy Chakraborty, Sajan and Rajan Mishra, T.N. Krishnan, U. Srinivas, Purvi Parikh and Ravikiran.
This group of musicians came to meet the PM at his office in Parliament. The meeting was also attended by former Culture Secretary Ashok Vajpeyi. They tried to make him realize the importance of classical arts and its values in todays society.
They wanted the government to provide support to the classical art form while giving importance to the modern art also. They wanted the educational institutions to teach the classical art forms at the lower as well as higher level so that the next generation remains aware about their tradition and culture.
They requested the government to involve the corporate sector in supporting the classical music. They urged to exempt the corporate sector from income tax in one per cent of corporate turnover for supporting the cultural activities. They also asked for a National Museum of Indian Performing Arts that could ignite the young minds.
The classical musicians also criticized the growing absurd reality shows in Indian television. They wanted an independent channel, which will be dedicated to culture and fine arts.
Prime Minister was reportedly in support of their suggestions and promised to support them and added that there will be no problem with funding.
We hope this step by the musicians help in promoting the Indian classical music among todays youth.
--Sampurn Wire