NCPA wing faces closure

Anmol Vellani, former programme officer, Education and Culture, Ford Foundation, New Delhi, states that doing away with the documentation centre is a breach of understanding between the Ford Foundation and the NCPA. "In the NCPA’s proposal for a second grant (worth $125,000) in 1991, the organisation had stated that it will keep the TDC breathing even after the grant expires," he explains.

Former NCPA deputy director and the then project director of TDC, Dr Ashok Ranade says, "The TDC is a valuable archive in the field of theatre. Setting it up meant collecting data, rare photographs, video/audio interviews of theatre personalities, photocopying and classifying them. A precious archive cannot be done away with because a grant is over. It had been decided that the Ford Foundation grant would be utilised to set up the TDC. The NCPA would continue the project even after the grant expired."

Owing to the drying up of fund, the NCPA justified terminating the services of Sucharita Apte and Chetan Datar, research associates in the TDC in March 1997. The order was stayed at the Labour Court and they remained in service later. Dr Ranade confirms that they are permanent employees and cannot be expelled in this manner.

Apart from documentation of data related to theatre, the two have also assisted in the direction of various NCPA productions. Dr Ranade explains that Datar and others were brought in because of their theatre background, "They were trained on the job. A theatre development centre needs such people with insight and contacts in the field."

Vellani also feels that the termination of the two employees is to do with internal economics.

Dr Vijaya Mehta refused to react, when contacted in New Delhi. "I have never defended myself and I never will," she stated.

Says Apte, "We were shocked to see our termination notice out of the blue. When we asked Dr Mehta about it, she actually told us that she had just signed the notice but had no idea about its contents!"

"Mehta asked me to quit my job in November ’96. She said that NCPA was now going to be high profile and that I could not fit in because I was not fluent in English," said Datar.

He was informed by Mehta that only English journalists, who could be good administrators would be employed in the NCPA henceforth and that she ( Mehta) would be the only performer in the place.

He claims that Mehta threatened to have him out just like she had removed another research associate Waman Kendre in ’95. Kendre admitted that he had "left the organisation as there was no work for him anymore; the new management did not consider the TDC important".

Eminent playwright Vijay Tendulkar states, "I am not surprised by all this. The management of NCPA has always had a holier than thou attitude. They have hankered for a false international profile’ by distancing themselves from Marathi theatre and the true milieu of this city." Tendulkar sees Mehta’s comments as "reasons obviously created to ease out an employee".

Dr Shubhada Shelke, a former research associate at the NCPA states, "At the NCPA, there were complaints about my lack of fluency in English as well. However, my reasons for quitting were personal."

Apte further alleges that Dr Mehta never let her grow in the profession. "Despite the relentless work I put into every project, I was not given the due credit. For instance, as the assistant director of the play Faust, I slogged through months of rehearsals. On the eve of the Faust premiere, Dr Mehta nonchalantly told me that it was alright if I wouldn’t attend the show."