Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Apr 5: The returning officer of Moodbidri, V Prasanna, who had served notice asking Kateel Yakshagana Mela not to utilize the services of an artiste who normally dons role of a comedian, sighting that his conversation as witnessed in a video clip was politically inclined, has withdrawn the said notice. With this, the episode ended on a happy note.

The episode during which the comedian, Poornesh Acharya, reportedly mimicked Rahul Gandhi, who had uttered certain Kannada words wrongly in his address at Belagavi, had been performed in Kasargod district, where model code of conduct meant for election-bound Karnataka is not applicable. The electoral officer, it is gathered, wrongly perceived that the controversial Yakshagana episode referred above was played at Padumarnadu near Moodbidri, and issued notice of legal action against the artiste. Realizing that the notice was served based on mistaken notion, the officer has since withdrawn it.

The officer had served notice on Acharya on April 2. The notice mentioned that Acharya had used certain politically inclined words in a Yakshagana performance held at Padumarnadu village on April 1 and hence his services should not be used by the Yakshagana troupe in future performances. Copies of the notice had also been endorsed to Moodbidri police inspector, officer for implementation of code of conduct, village accountants of Moodbidri, Mulky and Puthige as well as chief officer of Moodbidri municipality, apart from the flying squad. The VST team and sector officer were asked to provide video CD of the performance.

Yakshagana manager had asked Poornesh Acharya on Tuesday to go on leave. Accordingly, he did not take part in the Yakshagana performance on Tuesday. After the incident got lot of coverage in social media, Moodbidri returning officer invited Asranna of Kateel temple and manager of the Mela and discussed with them on Wednesday about the clarification provided by Acharya. The commission was told that the conversation in question was delivered during the performance at Kasargod on March 24. On the basis of this, the notice was withdrawn. Poornesh took part in the performance of the troupe on Wednesday.

Convener of Yaksha Sangama Moodidri, M Shantaram Kudva, said that a Yakshagana artiste had to go through mental torture and character assassination because of the mistake of officials who took one-sided decision without properly examining the information, which he termed as condemnable.