The government has temporarily withdrawn the 10-month-old restriction on Jatra until the arrived of Ramadan. Sb says an agency report.

At the time of the imposition of the restriction' we had opposed the action against a traditional art medium lauded and commended by the Prime Minister only days before as a national treasure. The government didn't care much about our qbjections and arguments. It rather fireferred to put value on a certain government unctionary's prejudices and vulnerabilities. Administratively, it was the interior ministry which sat in Judgement over which art form should the citizens have an access to and which not. is that ministry sufficiently empowered to do such a thing? Is it their province, their baby, so to say? Governments have for long tried to screen off people from reading this or that book under this or that pretext — but they are not on record to have proscribed a whole genre of books, say poetry, or even more specifically, sonnets.

The unfortunately sweeping decision against Jatra which was almost a personal affront to the Prime Minister continued convicting the art form without a hearing and trial of an inditement of a very vague and contestable nature. It is now being lifted temporarily. Why temporarily? If officim objections against this theatrical form do not hold good anymore, lift the ban for good. If you have doubts, do not lift it. You are possibly being mindful of the sanctity of the Ramadan. You possibly are unable to think that the people and the Jatrawallahs between them can evolve the best way out to keep that sanctity intact — and it has been done that way over centuries.

Public exhibition of obscenity is a punishable offence in law long in force in this country. To stop obscene Jatra productions you do not need to strike dead a glorious national art form. Those who are aware of the economics of a Jatra company know it too well that it cannot be cun on a temporary basis, even as a sugar mill is not run as such. We appeal to government to free itself of a quite a ludicrous decision that can have very many adverse impacts on our cultural life.