Thursday, April 28 2005 21:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Coming to the defence of Sangeet Natak Akademi chairperson Sonal Mansingh, eminent theatre artiste Girish Karnad today (Apr 28, 2005) urged President A P J Abdul Kalam not to remove her from the post and felt that criticism raised against her were "emotive" in nature.

In a letter written to the President, Karnad, who was chairman of the Akademi from 1988 to 1993, said he had faced the "same personal experience of the issues relevant to the present crisis."

"I too was accused in the press of being dictatorial and high-handed. It is an occupational hazard of the post. (But) once a person is appointed to this post, he or she should be removed only if proven guilty of criminal misdemeanour," the Kannada theatre artist said.

He said many of the decisions taken by the chairman in his or her individual capacity "prove unpalatable" to individual members and in such cases the chairman was accused of acting "undemocratically and dictatorially."