The college team was reportedly slammed for using the words ‘bra’ and ‘panty’ during their play
Delhi Culture and Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra on Tuesday assured the theatre society of Delhi University’s Kamala Nehru College, Lakshya, that they will not get disqualified or lose marks in the competition organised by Delhi government’s cultural wing, Sahitya Kala Parishad. The college team was reportedly slammed for using the words ‘bra’ and ‘panty’ during their play.
Lakshya members had alleged on Monday that they were disqualified from the theatre competition, Mahavidyalaya Natya Samaroh, for using “obscene” words such as ‘bra’ and ‘panty’ during the performance. The organisers, however, said that no such decision has been taken as of now.
“Delhi Cabinet Minister Kapil Mishra called me after reading articles on the disqualification of Lakshya from Sahitya Kala Parishad’s theatre festival. He assured me that he will personally see to it that we don’t get disqualified or lose any marks in the competition,” said society convenor Monami Basu.
Confirming that he spoke to the society members and assured them of all possible help, Mishra said: “No form of art should come under moral policing and youth theatre especially should be free from the shackles of false propriety and be allowed artistic space and freedom.”
The theatre society had performed their annual production — ‘Shahira Ke Naam’ — during the competition at the Sri Ram Centre on January 27. The play was based on six college girls trying to create their own play. The actors then went on to describe how hostel girls played pranks on each other and how their undergarments got mixed up.
The theatre society claimed that after the performance, an announcement was made that their team was disqualified from the competition. “Initially, we thought they took offence to some cuss words we had used but later a judge told us that it was because we mentioned ‘bra’ and ‘panty’,” a theatre society member had said, requesting anonymity.
Afterwards, scores of girl students from various DU colleges protested outside the Sri Ram Centre on the last day of the event, with some even hanging bras on a wall. “The burden of ‘respectability’ is constantly imposed on the lives of women students. This respectability is one of the frames through which a deeply casteist national culture is reinforced. Such incidents are pervasive in our university spaces and homes,” said Devangana Kalita of Pinjra Tod, a campaign to ensure non-gender-discriminatory accommodation for women students.
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 "Mahavidyalaya Natya Samaroh")
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