Stamp 'dishonour' riles music fraternity

KOLKATA: India Post’s recent release of eight stamps to commemorate the contribution of some of India’s best-known musicians has ruffled feathers in the classical music fraternity and revealed that the government has no guideline on fixing the value for the mementos.
The stamps on music legends Bhimsen Joshi, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan, Gangubai Hangal, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva and DK Pattamal were released in September. While the stamps on Joshi and Shankar are in the denomination of Rs 25, the other six are priced at Rs 5.
The “discrimination” has annoyed families, disciples and music lovers who feel the government has robbed the departed legends of their dignity by introducing two sets of values for the commemorative stamps.
While releasing the stamps, President Pranab Mukherjee hailed the eight legends to be among the “tallest luminaries” in music whose contributions were beyond any estimation. But Hindustani vocalist Prabha Atre pointed out that the different sets of values would send a wrong signal to common man about the music stalwarts.
Pattamal’s disciple and daughter-in-law, Carnatic vocalist Lalitha Sivakumar, echoed Atre. “It would have been more dignified if the department of posts had not adopted such discriminatory practice. They should consider re-launching all the stamps in equal denomination,” she said.
A senior postal department official confessed he had no idea why the stamps were of different values and suggested that some maestros could have been singled out for “extra honour” as they were Bharat Ratna awardees. “Some stamps are suggested by our philatelic advisory committee, while many stamps are released just on the recommendation of ministers,” said Pradeep Kumar, director general of philately section, India Post.
Mallikarjun Mansur’s son and Jaipur-Atrauli gharana vocalist Rajasekhar Mansur said he was given to understand that the difference in the denomination was due to the fact that Joshi and Shankar were recipients of Bharat Ratna. “But when I got to know that the stamps on other Bharat Ratna recipients such as MS Subbulakshmi and Bismillah Khan that were released earlier were also priced at Rs 5, I found no basis of why it was different this time. What happened was unjustified,” he said.
Tabla player Swapan Chaudhuri, who has performed with many of the artistes whose names featured on the list, said, “Kumar Gandharva was senior to even Bhimsen Joshi. The government should not have downgraded certain artistes in this manner.”
A closer look by TOI revealed that the postal department assign values to commemorative stamps arbitrarily. In 2005, Bharat Ratna recipient Subbulakshmi was put in the same bracket as deceased Congress leaders Madhavrao Scindia and Jawaharlal Darda, who never won any state honours. Similarly, in 2008 stamps on Bismillah Khan and another deceased Congress leader, Rajesh Pilot, were both priced at Rs 5. In 2007, while the stamp on music composer SD Burman was priced at Rs 15, those on filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak and Mehboob Khan were valued at Rs 5. However, all three were Padma Shri awardees.
“There is no rule on fixing denomination. These things are just decided by senior officials. Heavyweight recommendations also play a big role,” said Sangeeta Kamble, an assistant superintendent in the philately section.
But, the “stamp dishonour”, as some aritstes have termed it, does not matter much to Vilayat Khan’s son Shujaat Khan. “My father never got due recognition in the country. So, it does not quite come to me as a shock,” said the sitar player who prefers to spend most of his time performing and teaching in the US. “In today’s world, postage stamps are very cosmetic anyway,” he said.