VADODARA: When Yamu Sheikh starts playing the drum and tabla at garba venues, thousands of youngsters swing to the tunes of his beats. The crowds even demand to play their favourite garbas and Sheikh readily obliges.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and some Hindu outfits that have issued diktat to garba organizers in Gujarat to ban entry of Muslim boys in garba venues seem to be oblivious of the fact that Muslim artists are the lifeline of several garba venues in the state.
These artists sing garbas and play musical instruments at many popular garba venues in Gujarat and abroad too.
"Artists don't have any religion. Our passion is to entertain the audience that turns up in large numbers at the garba venues. I have been playing musical instruments since years at different garba venues and the response from revelers has been very encouraging," said Sheikh, who has been performing for over two decades, told TOI.
When asked about VHP's diktat, Sheikh said that it is not right to politicize a sacred festival like Navratri.
"We have never faced any discrimination from people during our years of performances at different garba venues in Vadodara, Surat and Valsad and even the UK and US," Sheikh added.
Twenty-nine-year old Atta Khan, a MSU performing arts faculty alumnus, too has been singing garbas in different cities of Gujarat for the last one decade. He has been a regular at venues like Polo Club, Sitabaug Garba Ground in Vadodara apart from Surat, Rajpipla and even Madhya Pradesh.
"Wherever we performed, the revelers knew that a Muslim artist was singing garbas but no one objected. In fact, we got amazing response from the crowd who demanded to play their favourite garbas. We all enjoy the nine-night festival," Khan said and added that banning Muslim boys from garba venues is uncalled for and isn't in the right spirit of the festival.