“Cultural dictatorship”

Concerned over the "growing climate of intolerance” in India which he termed as "cultural dictatorship,” maestro Zubin Mehta expressed the view that the government should not ostracize writers and others who were protesting against the phenomenon. He informed The Times of India (TOI) of November 1, 2015 that the cancellation of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Bombay following protests by the Shiv Sena was "the same as Kashmiri separatists not wanting us to play. What is the difference?”
In 2013 Mehta had, despite massive protests by separatists as well as civil society, conducted a concert with the Bavarian State Orchestra hosted by the German embassy in Srinagar’s Shalimar Gardens (see "The music and the message,” Parsiana, September 21, 2013). The protestors had claimed that the concert was an attempt to present a picture of peace in Kashmir, mentions the TOI report.