New Delhi, Aug 13: In the wake of ailing Shehnai
maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan's appeal for financial help,
Sarod wizard Ustad Amjad Ali Khan today asked the Centre to
set up a 'corpus fund' for helping artists in times of
distress.
"There is an urgent need of a mechanism to address
concerns of artists and musicians who are facing severe
problems. The ministry of culture should start a corpus fund
for the emergency of these creative people," Khan told
reporters.
Referring to the nation-wide media attention generated by
Bismillah Khan's plea, Khan said "some artists like Khan Saab
get media attention but that is not the case with many
small-time artists."
Pointing out that "there is lack of proper outlets for
Indian classical music," he said "we need more sponsors and
promotors for organising concerts."
"In the name of promotion, crores of rupees are given to
various institutions but nobody knows where this money goes,"
he said.
"Corporate majors like Coca Cola and Pepsi were only
interested in sponsoring pop concerts and fashion shows, he
said and asked the big business houses to contribute to the
corpus fund.
Coming down heavily on the government for not including
any artist in the Indian delegation of parliamentarians and
journalists which is currently visiting Pakistan, he said
"politicians and others alone cannot bring peace, they should
have included one artist from every field in the team. Only
musicians can bring the world together."
Bureau Report
