Cops not letting us make a living, say stage artists

COIMBATORE: A group of stage artists dressed as Narendra Modi, Lord Hanuman and Ravanan gathered at the collectorate on Monday morning, protesting against police officials in the district for not giving permits to perform. They said the police’s move, to ban song and dance performances for preventive reasons, is killing the art of stage dancing in the district and costing them their livelihoods.
The dancers said that a month back they applied for permission to perform at a temple function in Gandhipuram at the area police station, but were refused. On another occasion they had approached the Sai Baba Colony police station to perform at a temple function but were refused. “We had asked for permission to just perform for three hours, but the police refused,” said the Tamil Nadu president of the Stage Dancers Association, Ajeeth Raja. “Temple authorities and committees who used to previously hire us have completely stopped contacting us,” said another dancer R David. “On many instances we’ve told them of the Madras high court ruling that stage dances can be allowed as long as it does not have any obscenity, hurt people’s sentiments or create political unrest. But they mock us and ask for an order copy,” he said. The group later in the afternoon submitted a petition to the police commissioner, A Amal Raj too.
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