Dr.Avnish Jolly, Chandigarh,April 26 : With the onset of Lok Sabha election fervour, leading theatrical, arts and literary personalities of Chandigarh lamented the indifferent attitude of politicians in promoting art and culture in the city here yesterday.At a large gathering of directors, writers and performers of Chandigarh, leaders from art and culture fraternity looked upon to the young and upcoming leader Ajay Goyal, who, in turn, assured them his full backing in the promotion of art and culture.
The leaders listed their dissatisfaction with successive leaders and administrations for ignoring their cause. The speakers chided the administration which spends lakhs of rupees on bringing performers from Mumbai but shirks from spending even few thousand on local artists to promote them. The prominent among the fraternity who spoke were theatre personality Asif Ali, senior culture promoter H S Bhatti, noted playwright Devender Dhawan among others.
Mr. Ajay Goyal, the independent candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, turned out to be a great orator and held the audience spell bound with his personal stories of cultural interests and a visionary agenda for Chandigarh.
“I used to wonder how it was that Europe which was poor and destroyed after the Second World War rose again. I used to wonder about the strength of European cities. I understood that cities that have culture at their heart are truly beautiful and successful”, asserted Mr Goyal.
“Prosperity comes after culture and art are given their rightful place at the top of agenda", added Mr Goyal and went on to say that his vision for Chandigarh had artistry, theatre, music and gaiety at its core. He dreamt of a Chandigarh which was not just beautiful in appearance but was full of creativity, artistic expression and where every child and young person's dreams could take flight.
"Chandigarh has all the ingredients to be a cultural jewel of India and a great prosperous city of country and indeed Asia. But it is for politicians to share that vision with artists and give that dream a reality through concrete steps and actions," Goyal said.
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