Rangayana director’s outburst sparks controversy

He described people opposing his choice of guests at the Bahuroopi theatre festival as Maoists, reports Vivek M V

Mysuru Rangayana director Addanda C Cariappa is under fire after he described his detractors as Maoists, and later as ‘putagosi’ (loin cloths). In an interview, he said Rangayana had been captured by Maoists before he took charge. The trouble began when many theatre people objected to right-wing speakers being invited to speak at the Bahuroopi theatre festival, now on hold.

“People from the Sangh Parivar are deeply compromising and destroying not just Rangayana but all public institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Vigilance Commission,” says poet, playwright and director Raghunandana, one of the signatories to a protest letter.

“Even the National School of Drama has been taken over by administrators associated with the RSS. Paresh Rawal, the NSD chairman, has been a Loka Sabha MP and owes allegiance to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The institution has an acting director with no powers. Many university professors are afraid to debate and express their opinions. Even those who speak do so in unduly roundabout and cautious terms. So the Rangayana row isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a huge game plan. History shows that the first target of fascism has always been cultural and educational institutions,” he tells Showtime.

Raghunandana says the silence of the members of the Ranga Samaja, which advises Rangayana, is a problem. “When you don’t discuss important and contentious issues, it means you agree with what is happening. Members of the Ranga Samaja have a public responsibility. If they can’t critically analyse the situation in the open, they must resign. They must remember that they are working on behalf of the public and are not there for the pomp of it,” he says.

Shashidhara Barighat, senior theatre director, says Cariappa’s comments are intemperate. “They expose the absence of a democratic system at the theatre repertory,” he says.

Cariappa responds

“I have never said I don’t respect people leaning to the Left. It was this group of people who first accused me of not being worthy of being in the post. I have only responded to them. I encourage all ideas at Rangayana and there will continuous plays here,” Cariappa says.