Delhi: Evicted from govt housing, artistes look for place to stay

Kathak exponent Geetanjali Lal has divided her costumes and instruments into two spaces owned by her students, while artist Jatin Das, who wants the government to have a cultural policy in place, was boxing up his artwork, and supplies, apart from looking for an apartment.

“I wonder why they did not see our incomes before evicting us. My father never charged for teaching Odissi. The standing instruction was ‘pehle kuch khao, phir riyaaz’,” said Madhumita Raut, daughter of Guru Mayadhar, who played a key role in giving Odissi the status of a formal and methodical system.

“He’s created a galaxy of dancers, who’ve gone on to win awards and accolades. Actor Meenakshi Seshadri was often in our kitchen, eating before practice, Protima Bedi was perpetually on a diet so she only wanted two Marie biscuits when she learned. Once a Dutch student insisted on a fee, so he gave it to the milkman, saying give some extra milk for this girl’s bones. He gave this nation far too much to be thrown out like this in return,” she said.

Under the central government’s new policy of 2014, central government employees are to be given government accommodation and all quotas for artistes and sportspersons are being gradually eliminated. The reason cited in the past was that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is falling short of houses to be provided to the government employees.

The government Thursday clarified that the decision to evict artistes from houses allotted to them was as per the Delhi High Court’s orders. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said that the artistes had filed a petition in the High Court which was dismissed earlier this year and added that a grace period of two months was given to the allottees to hand over possession.

According to a statement issued by the MoHUA, “the Ministry had issued guidelines dated 24.10.1985 for allotment of government accommodations under Eminent Artists’ category on the basis of a decision taken by Cabinet Committee on Accommodation on 12.09.1985, which was subject to certain conditions including that ‘duration of allotment would be three years and cases of allotment to be reviewed once in three years’.”

Kuchipudi exponents Guru Jayarama Rao (75) and his wife Vanashree Rao (67) will be moving to a flat arranged by their Mumbai-based son. “I feel disgraced and dishonoured. We were criticised, trashed, and called squatters, defaulters… Patronage is not charity, it is a recognition for the arts. When a sportsperson wins a medal, isn’t he given cash awards house and land? Today, we do not have any space to keep our awards. These accommodations are not some huge bungalows, they are two-bedroom flats, but we could dance and teach freely here without a landlord telling us to not disturb the neighbourhood,” said Vanashree.

Kathak exponent Geetanjali Lal, who is still in the Asiad village house, boxing up what’s left of her costumes, said that she’s represented India in so many parts of the world, danced inside Rashtrapati Bhavan, and taught Kathak to so many people and that they deserved better. “Only by evicting this handful of artistes will the bureaucrats be satisfied? If it’s necessary to give accommodation to central government employees, it is also necessary to find alternate accommodation for us…,” said Lal.

Madhumita said that previous Prime Ministers including Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Rajiv Gandhi would have the artistes over for tea at home, and tell the ministries of Culture and Housing “to not disturb the artistes and do their work”. “This government does not care for its artistes,” she said. —With inputs from Anisha Dutta