Pro-Palestine mime re-enacted, wins 1st prize

Report by The New Indian Express

A pro-Palestine mime, which was disrupted on Friday for alleged violation of rules during the arts festival at Kumbla Higher Secondary School, was reenacted on Monday and ended up winning the first prize. The five-minute performance by the students portrayed the relentless bombing in Gaza and highlighted the human misery due to food and water shortage.

The students entered at the stage wearing the keffiyeh, a headscarf, but removed it as they took the stage as festival rules banned political props. As the mime ended with a rousing reception, students in the audience raised ‘Free Palestine’ slogan for nearly a minute.

On Friday, two teachers had pulled the curtains down on the mime and announced cancellation of the second day of the fest, triggering a political controversy. However, the fest resumed on Monday on the directive of General Education Minister V Sivankutty.

Students Anas, Rishad, Awad, Foumiya, Ramshida and Amna performed the mime. “Some things happened on Friday and led to a lot of tension. We are thankful to the education minister and the government for allowing reenactment of the mime. We want to end this controversy and move on,” said Rishad.

The students who spoke to mediapersons after the performance said they were not fully aware of the rules, which triggered the entire controversy. “The teachers were not against the Palestine theme either. However, instead of pulling the curtains down, they could have simply disqualified us,” reasoned one of them.

Meanwhile, BJP Yuva Morcha cadre protested against the decision to stage the mime again. Deputy Director of Education (incharge) Savitha Pundoor submitted a report on the mime and the events that followed to the education minister and the director of general education on Saturday. She declined to reveal the contents of the report.