During Sabrang, the annual cultural fest of Deshbandhu College, extreme mismanagement led to disappointment among the participants of the group folk dance event.
On 5th March 2019, Riwayat the folk-dance society of Deshbandhu College organised Ruhaaniyat, a group folk dance competition as part of their annual cultural fest, Sabrang. The event saw extreme mismanagement on the part of the organisers due to which there was a time clash between the folk dance and fashion society’s event. Although, the event saw participation from 11 teams but only nine were able to perform, out of which Ramanujan College was disqualified.
Abhishek, the President of the Bhangra Regiment, the folk dance Society of Ramanujan College stated that the competition at Deshbandhu was cancelled by the teachers due to mismanagement after more than half of the teams had already performed. He stated, “Even our team was disqualified. According to them, we took time in microphone set-up when it was discussed with their co-ordinator before hand.” Shubhanshi Bharadwaj, President of Nazaakat, the folk dance society of Gargi College claimed that it was one of the worst competitions they took part in. “While we were performing , we were asked to step down during the performance because of time constraints. Fashion societies were also waiting for their event to begin. In all this ruckus, two societies couldn’t perform.”
The Bhangra Society of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College and Bhangra Inspire from Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College even after waiting till 6 p.m, all ready with their outfits, were not able to perform at the competition. The President of Bhangra Inspire said, “The organisers started the fashion show abruptly and told us that we will perform after. But they continued with the fashion show for a long time. We asked them to let us perform since we had been waiting for long in our costumes. But we weren’t allowed.” Post this, the teams had a heated discussion with the teachers and the Student Union where the teams demanded that the event be cancelled. But the Union opposed this and an announcement to conduct the event the next day was made. However, it became impossible for different societies to return to perform the next day for the competition. A week later, the President of Riwayat, the folk dance society of Deshbandhu College texted the members of Mridang, the folk dance society of Miranda House and Nrityakriti, folk dance society of Maitreyi College that they have secured first and second position respectively.
Shubhashini also stated that teachers were being extremely disrespectful towards the teams. She added “When the presidents of different societies went to talk to the teacher, she told them she will slap them or ask the bouncers to throw us out. It was so disrespectful and disheartening to see a teacher behave this way.”
The President of Riwayaat accepted the occurrence of mismanagement. She said, “The event began extremely late because of the inauguration. Everything got delayed and the fashion society started demanding the stage to conduct their own event. All this led to a huge ruckus.” Talking about their decision to release the results a week after the even she said, “Other teams who had performed demanded that the results should be announced. We understand it was a mistake on our part but it was our duty to disclose the results.”
Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat
Sakshi Arora
