Gonzales demands explanation over NCIC sponsorship withdrawal

PNM chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les is de­mand­ing an ex­pla­na­tion from the Gov­ern­ment over what he de­scribes as the sud­den with­draw­al of state en­ter­prise spon­sor­ship from the Na­tion­al Coun­cil for In­di­an Cul­ture’s Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions, warn­ing against the use of pub­lic re­sources to pun­ish cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tions.

In a state­ment is­sued on Mon­day, the Arou­ca/Lopinot MP al­so con­demned Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s com­ments con­cern­ing the NCIC, de­scrib­ing them as “reck­less and un­for­tu­nate”, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing a re­li­gious pe­ri­od as­so­ci­at­ed with peace, good­will and na­tion­al uni­ty.

Full coverageSponsors Withdraw Support for Divali Nagar as NCIC Seeks Funding25 reports

Gon­za­les said the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fice car­ried a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­mote har­mo­ny, ex­er­cise re­straint and re­spect the in­de­pen­dence of re­li­gious and cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions.