Pakistani band held back from performance by Mumbai police

MUMBAI-

Performance of Pakistani band Sachal Jazz Ensemble in Mumbai was called off on Monday evening at the eleventh hour as the city police withheld permission for the seven Pakistani band members to perform, Times of India reported.

The Lahore-based band consists of three British citizens and seven Pakistanis. The last-minute cancellation left a 1,000 strong crowd that had gathered to hear the internationally renowned band deeply disappointed.

The performance was to begin at 7 pm; the show was cancelled at 7.40 pm after the permissions failed to come through.

Reportedly, the three UK citizens in the band were given approval by the police to perform in the city, but the permissions to the Pakistanis were withheld.

Sources in the police special branch said the department sat on the application from the band to perform in the city in the wake of the current India-Pakistan tensions. “There have been cases in the past where the situation has turned violent after approval was given to organise such concerts,” said the source.

Band Member Jay Visvadeva, in a press statement, expressed his disappointment over the event.

“Whilst our Indian partners and officials at the venue tried to salvage the evening’s clearances, no response was forthcoming from the Maharashtra Police and only the Chief Minister of Maharashtra who would have been the final arbiter on the matter was unreachable,” he stated.

“I am also told that many producers of international bands are reluctant to come to Mumbai because of the heavy handedness of the bureaucracy here because they tend to exhibit a lack of basic sensitivity toward any artistic endeavour or production which is set apart from the norm”, he said while announcing that “due to the chain of events, Sachal Jazz Ensemble will be leaving India without any further performances.”

“ It seems somehow ironic that whilst the renowned Gundecha brothers from Bhopal are touring Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan at this moment and Ganasaraswati Kishori Amonkar has just given an outstanding concert in Dhaka, Bangladesh that the Sachal Ensemble will be heading home from India tomorrow without having played a note in Mumbai.With the eyes of the world on India, now more than ever, one cannot help but feel that at best an own goal has been scored,” he further added.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has also condemned the behaviour by the authorities.

“The more things change, the more they remain the same. When our Prime Minister invited the prime minister of Pakistan to the swearing in ceremony, it made us believe that a new dawn was here. But if this news of the performance being disrupted is true then it proves that nothing has changed,” he said.