Art & Culture can only flourish with govt support: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: Asserting that 'culture would not flourish by itself, in a vacuum', Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said that the government needs to understand the importance of culture, which would generate employment across the country.

Speaking at ‘Smart Cities, Art Cities’ Summit for 'Building Creative Industries' in India, Tharoor, said, "Here, Finance Minister is more powerful than the Minister of Culture because when the practitioners and artists say that we need tax breaks, sympathy of the government institutions, some kind of social security safety net to ageing practitioners of arts and crafts (to provide incentives) etc., they require active support of the finance minister."

He further said that somebody from the government needs to sit down and understand the importance of culture and remarked that he had been asked for leading the 'Congress Manifesto Consultations' to evince inputs from those hailing from art and culture on what they want us to do.

Pointing out to the country's transformation from a manufacturing to a service-based economy, Tharoor said that crafts, technology, and design should be coalesced to create jobs, which needs to be generated quite urgently.