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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> <strong>Friday</strong>, <strong>October</strong> <strong>23</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> NEW ZEALAND 9 Mayur Dance Academy to perform at Wellington Diwali Festival’s opening ceremony RIZWAN MOHAMMAD <strong>The</strong> excitement for Diwali season will begin with the Wellington Diwali Festival, which is happening in the capital city over the labour weekend. One of the leading dance schools of <strong>Indian</strong> cultural dances from Wellington, Mayur Dance Academy is expressing rejoice for the opportunity to perform at the official opening ceremony at the Wellington Diwali Festival. <strong>The</strong> festival has survived the Covid scare that has disrupted and cancelled many major cultural events all around the country, courtesy to the zeal of the Wellington Council to deliver an opportunity to Wellingtonians to celebrate in this unusual year and the meticulous planning of the production team to hold the festival under Alert Level 1. Wellingtonians are in for a treat this Sunday as Wellington Diwali kicks off with an impressive display of light, music, food, cultural performances and end with fireworks. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> spoke with Mayur Dance Academy founder Suparna Basu who was enthralled to share her excitement for bringing four slots of performances on the Diwali stage this Sunday at Wellington Diwali Festival. Suparna Basu, a trained classical <strong>Indian</strong> dance master, also told the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> that her students have been performing for all eight years of Wellington Diwali Festival. Her school is known for teaching classical <strong>Indian</strong> dance forms such as Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Bollywood to dance and music enthusiasts, especially young Kiwi <strong>Indian</strong>s in the Wellington region. “We have been part of the Diwali festival for eight years now and have entertained the crowd with the richness of <strong>Indian</strong> classical dance and music. “This year, Mayur Dance Academy students OPINION: Did National ever have a 'plan' for this election? SANDEEP SINGH National Party will undoubtedly be on a soul-searching introspection mission soon. However, the first thing that it could do well now, is to acknowledge the grim reality that it never “had a plan” for this election. <strong>The</strong> “plan” that National’s campaign messages were trumpeting loud and boisterously in the lead up to the election - was for a supposed economic recovery - from the current downturn that the country was facing because of Covid-infliction disruptions. Surprisingly, there was no “plan” to deal with the continuously rising popularity of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, which has further risen after New Zealand’s success in managing the impact of public health pandemic. Instead, the party had remained either delusional or distracted or just not bothered with Prime Minister Ardern’s continuously rising popularity. Contrary to 2017, it was not the “stardust” that the National had then chosen to contemptuously define and subsequently ignore, and just been hoping that it will automatically recede by the time of next election when it will supposedly fail to deliver many of their aspirational goals. It was merely wishful thinking, which clearly had not unfolded as per the party’s hopes. In the lead up to <strong>2020</strong> election, what National was facing was not mere “stardust” of an untested, freshly minted, a seemingly woke and glamorous leader, who was anointed out of turn within her party to turn around its fortunes. Rather Ardern had transcended into a truly popular leader who had been at the helm of will be opening the event that will be followed with the formal ceremony of the festival with dignitaries and guests,” Suparna Basu said. <strong>The</strong> dance group in the past has performed at the parliament, Holi festival, temples, Diwali celebrations of <strong>Indian</strong> associations and community groups, and give an annual production event for the dance school every year. Ms Basu adds that this year, 42 of near 200 students of Mayur Dance Academy will be performing at the Diwali stage and their National Party Leader Judith Collins (Photo Courtesy- RNZ / Samuel Rillstone) affairs for one full term, led the nation through some shocking crisis in a never-seen-before, kind and compassionate style of leadership, and maintained at least an economic status-quo right till the Covid disruptions - if that gives some assurance to National’s normal supporters - and yet was popular. National seems to have been misled by a selective line of commentary appearing within some sections of the media, which argued that Ardern’s recent popularity was at best erroneous, and an infatuation of “fear-stricken” people who have been scared out of their lives because of the manner of government’s covid management. While nothing wrong in such media commentaries, despite reflecting upon the intelligence level of the public a bit poorly, it is for the political parties and their “thinktanks” to know how best to process such selective analyses. Often, such passionate yet selective performances will have three different forms of classical, and one Bollywood dance. “We have two groups of 12, one of eight and another ten who will perform at the Diwali event this weekend. “Our students are very excited to be a part of this years’ event as this is their first big stage performance in the last eight months as evidently, most of the events were cancelled or postponed due to Covid-19 this year,” Ms Basu added. She says the students have been rehearsing commentaries have to be reconciled with more divergent-assessments of the same political realities, to have a more comprehensive understanding of complex challenges. In politics, one is doomed to fail, if they take a myopic view of any issue or challenge, and National’s view of the political challenge ahead, particularly ever since the Covid had hit upon us was extremely myopic and a recipe for disaster. <strong>The</strong> National Party had clearly underestimated Ardern’s massive popularity and never had a “plan” to deal with a first-term popular Prime Minister. This was also an outcome of the party’s failure in comprehending the electoral outcome of 2017 elections and coming to terms to the new reality of sitting in opposition, despite then being the single largest party in the parliament. <strong>The</strong> party had since then been living in their own little world with a false self-entitled view that it deserved to be in the government for their performances for six weeks now, and each of the performances will be something fresh, new, and diverse to offer. About Wellington Diwali Festival <strong>2020</strong> <strong>The</strong> Wellington Diwali Festival of <strong>2020</strong> will be unique is it is the only Diwali event in New Zealand which will be held on a massive scale with the expectation of the attendance of thousands at the venues. <strong>The</strong> event does not just offer great music, exhilarating performances and festive ambience but also lip-smacking snacks from different corners of India, beverages, activities such as Henna, art, craft and clothing stalls etc. Not to forget, the event will be concluded with a spectacular firework to be seen on the waterfront. <strong>The</strong> event starts at 3 p.m. and ends with the fireworks at 8:30 p.m. and not in the opposition trenches, and hence completely underestimating the difficult path ahead. <strong>The</strong> journey from the opposition trenches to power in government is arduous most of the times. Some of the glaring failures within the coalition government such as in housing, Kiwibuild, Light-rail, etc had only been enhancing National’s self-entitled view in the last term that this election will be for the government to lose, and not the opposition to win. That explains, no serious brainstorm within the party in the last term, about the future of political and financial-conservatism in this country, as it wished to reap the benefits of the dominance of the so-called Key-English era in NZ politics. <strong>The</strong> party failed to foresee that the country had very swiftly entered into Jacinda Ardernera in politics and had neither any appreciation and nor any plan on how to sail through this new era of politics. What Nats had at best offered in this election, was incessant attacks on the government, which were often baseless and unsubstantiated, and a demonstration of an abject lack of political large-heartedness – something that was completely antithetical to Jacinda Ardern style of politics. An honest acknowledgement of this seemingly simple, but a glaring error, will allow the party an honest introspection and put it quickly on a path to recovery and possibly road to power sooner, than what may appear from the latest electoral drubbing.
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