The Union Budget was announced almost effortlessly by our Finance Minster Arun Jaitley on February 28, 2015. People from all vocations applauded the BJP government’s #SuperBudget. Well, almost all.
As an article on Business Standard points out, our theatre- wallah s have suffered a big blow post Budget 2015-16. How?
“Sahitya Akademi (SA) and National School of Drama (NSD) were badly affected as their budget allocations have been reduced from 21.23% to 9.76% and from 43.03% to 13.45%, respectively.”
That’s a good 54% and 44% drop in terms of money. Ouch.
In other news, leather footwear will be cheaper . And so will LED TVs and all those jazzy TVs you see advertised on your trusty old idiot box.
Because hey, who needs theatre when you can watch SRK on hi-def, right?
It’s not that our government doesn’t care for history. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) got a sweet budget raise of almost Rs 50 crore.
In fact, Jaitley even said that “there was a great need to improve facilities at the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India and for this the government will start restoration process at eight sites,” Business Standard reports.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re all for restoration. But what of preservation of art that is currently evolving and is a testament of our times, of art that is a necessary voice in a growing political atmosphere?
