Panaji : Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS), a Hindu organisation in Goa, demanded that permission granted by the Goa Government to ‘Sunburn Classic’ to hold Electroninc Dance Music (EDM) festival this month be withdrawn.
Addressing a press conference in the city, Dr Manoj Solanki, State Convenor of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), said this year the ‘Percept Live’, organisers of “Sunburn’, would be organising an ‘Electronic Dance Festival (EDM)’ of ‘Sunburn Classic’ with the cooperation of the ‘Classic Events’, an establishment based in Goa, in Vagator on February 23 and 24,2019.
“The background of Sunburn festival held in Goa is controversial. Many untoward incidents have taken place during the festival such as arrest of a drug dealer Saurabh Agarwal in possession of narcotics, open consumption of drugs in the festival despite the assurance of the organisers that the festival is a drug-free event, the deaths of Neha Bahuguna in 2009 and Isha Mantri in 2014 in ‘Supersonic Festival’ due to overdose of narcotics, defrauding the Government by non-payment of crores of rupees toward revenue, etc,” he said.
Dr Solanki statedd that the Sunburn Festival had a criminal background even in Pune. ”The village Panchayat of Kesanand, where Sunburn Festival was held, had passed the resolution of imposing prohibition within the limits of the village; however, the organisers of the festivals infringed the rule by erecting stalls selling alcoholic drinks. Moreover, many unlawful activities took place at that time such as illegal excavation, tree-cutting, defrauding the Government revenue by suppressing exact figures of ticket sales, causing noise pollution, exhibiting the National Flag in a perverted manner thus using Tricolour for commercial benefits, etc, he said.
Dr Solanki said if at all, the government wished to promote tourism, many art-forms which would attract foreign tourists toward Indian culture were available in the state and country. The government should rejuvenate them and increase tourism, he said.
