In the wake of the Pentagram-IPEC Ghaziabad fiasco, the Hindustan Times reports that Hindi rock band Agnee was allegedly cheated out of fees by Baroda’s MS University.
Slated to headline the college’s annual festival, Junoon, things went downhill soon after as accommodation and flight commitments were apparently reneged on. The band claims that they had to spend over Rs 9,000 on hotel incidentals and over Rs 90,000 on flight tickets due to a mix-up with the airline. In a classy move, the dean of the institution was of the opinion that Agnee was too intoxicated to read the tickets correctly and was therefore responsible for the confusion. Agnee vocalist Mohan is quoted in the HT piece, stating that the airlines has refunded the cost of the tickets to the institution, but the University was refusing to forward the money to the band. The piece also reports that the sound vendor was yet to be paid for services rendered, but then again, the last time a sound vendor was paid so quickly after a festival was um, never.
Agnee has posted a lengthy breakdown of their version of events as a note on their Facebook page. The note essentially reinforces what was written in the article – the band is currently out Rs 116,206, and the college (and Dean K. Baba Pai in particular) is refusing to reimburse the amount.
In a post-Anna Hazare world, sticking it to the Man now appears to be a national pastime. Expect more of these stories to appear in the press in the future.
Stay tuned for updates.
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