little over three months after the Shiv Sena forced the cancellation of the concert of Pakistani Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai, the Opposition NCP on Sunday stoked a fresh controversy by inviting him for a singing performance in Mumbai’s satellite city of Thane.
A tweet put out by senior State NCP leader Jitendra Awhad — announcing the music concert of Ghulam Ali — created a stir in the State political circles with senior Shiv Sena leader Pratap Sarnaik indicating that his party would disrupt the impending programme in the event of Awhad going ahead with the Pakistani Ghazal singer’s programme at Thane, if he had guts.
On his part, Awhad has invited Ghulam Ali for a concert as part of the Thane festival being organised between February 11 and 14, by his social organisation “Sangarsh Prathishtan”.
Ridiculing Awhad for his cheap publicity gimmicks, Sarnaik said, “The intention behind Awhad announcing the concert of Ghulam Ali at Thane is to seek cheap publicity. He wants to rake up a controversy by extending an invitation to Ghulam Ali. Are there no Ghazal singers in IndiaIJ I dare him to go ahead and organise Ghulam Ali’s concert at Thane,” Sarnaik said.
Hitting back at the Sena, Awhad said, “Agreed, the Shiv Sena is deadly opposed to Pakistan. The Shiv Sena should exhibit its opposition to Pakistan politically rather than indulging in this kind of publicity gimmicks. The Sena is a constituent of the NDA Government at the Centre. If it wants to deal with the singer politically, it should quit the NDA Government over the manner in which PM Narendra Modi has gone out of the way to win over Pakistan, though unsuccessfully”.
“It is my challenge to the Sena to go ahead and disrupt Ghulam Ali’s event at Thane,” Awhad said.
Notwithstanding Ghulam Ali’s impressive concerts held recently in West Bengal and Kerala, it is quite unlikely that he would accept Awhad’s invitation and perform at Thane.
For, Thane is incidentally the traditional bastion of the Shiv Sena. It was here the Sena captured power for the first time in the local municipal council in 1967, a year after the party was founded by late Bal Thackeray.
It may be recalled that the Sena had forced the organisers of Ghulam Ali’s concert to cancel the event scheduled at Shanmukhananda Hall at Matunga in north-central Mumbai on October 9 last year.
Within hours after the Shiv Sena’s cine wing Chitrapat Sena met the Shanmukhanand Hall management and threatened to disrupt the programme, the organisers had developed cold feet about going ahead with the programme, which was a tribute to Indian singer Jagjit Singh.
The announcement about cancellation of Ghulam Ali’s concert had come after the organisers met Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at the Mayor’s bungalow in the evening and sought his intervention in ensuring the smooth conduct of Ghulam Ali’s concert.