In a turn of irony, the Sahitya Akademi Award winner Nayantara Sahgal was disintegrated by the 92nd All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, a literature festival that was designed for the inauguration. His crime? Attempt to give a speech in which he wanted to talk about the status of matters in India at this time, especially Hindutva, and the importance of dissatisfaction in democracy.
Listen to nayantara sahgal here.
talking to The QuintSahgal said that cancellation of his invitation appeared on a “political request”.
We have heard in the papers that even though the invitation will be increased again, you are not ready to consider it.
Well, this is a fictional question because it is not being re -extended. Today is already 8th, I was to leave for Mumbai on 10th and the ceremony was inaugurated on 11th, so there is no question of re -releasing it. Now I have already said that since the organizers have canceled it, there is no question of my departure.
Is, in your opinion, followed the curtain?
Well, political request, or what else can it be? I am not very surprised because it is happening from time to time all over India. The second day, a history conference in Maharashtra was canceled and before the TM Krishna’s concert (The Great Carnatic singer) in Delhi was canceled, and the work of Ramchandra Guha and Gopal Gandhi was canceled. It is going on and I am not very surprised.
The interesting bit here is that it was actually an MNS supporter who released a type of threat, which is why the organization had canceled it or at least these organizers would have believed that it was an MNS man.
We do not know whether this was the reason or cover for the real reason. I do not know
Mr. Raj Thackeray has admitted that it was actually his party worker and has apologized and said that he increases your support.
Yes I read It was clearly not the organization, so it must have been some political pressure.
We also read the speech that you were going to give in this literary meeting on 11th, where you have talked very strongly about the increasing intolerance in the country. By not allowing you to make that speech, do you think it has followed the whole thing?
I want to clarify that I am not against any person or any government. You know that if they say that I am against BJP or Prime Minister, then this is not true. I am not against any one person or party. I have only opposed the idea that freedom should not be allowed, all dissatisfaction and debate have been banned – this is what I am opposing and I have also opposed it during a Congress government in 1975. However, the Prime Minister was my cousin Indira Gandhi, I still opposed it because I will not agree with a situation in my country where dissatisfaction and debate are banned and where only one idea is to be of everyone.
I am happy that you have mentioned Indira Gandhi and Emergency because some of the strongest critics came from you and your mother and people forgot it.
They forget and then they talk nonsense. If they remember that they know that I have strongly opposed such a situation when it arises. This is not the first time.
Are you also suggesting that the kind of intolerance we are seeing today reminds of the emergency era?
This is bad. The Emergency was very clearly a dictatorship where the constitution was amended to deprive our life and the right to freedom. But today, all this is happening under a democratic government, it is worse. So in a way, it is worse. Such things should not be done in democracy.
Do you think that the Prime Minister who is at the top of the cases, is deliberately doing nothing to investigate this increasing intolerance?
As I said, I am not targeting any party or person including the Prime Minister. I personally have nothing against these people. In fact, I want I meet them and talk to them, we can discuss these matters an independent discussion. I think this would be the best way to handle this situation. I am not saying, “Why are the Prime Minister not speaking?” I am very sorry that he is not speaking. But after all, this is his agenda and how can he speak against it? It is the agenda of his party that it is a Hindu country and does not matter. How can we expect to speak against him?
Do you find it interesting that some of your most animated supporters belong to the Congress party which you have strongly criticized in the past? Do you find yourself in the middle of this strange political opera, as it was?
No, I think I have never been a member of any political party and I never want to be in politics. Except for the period of Emergency, I have voted for the Congress. Congress is my family background. From his early beginning, my parents fought under Mahatma Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru was a Congressman. Therefore, I am the best with the Congress in the sense of the establishment of a modern society in India under its first three governments under Nehru, Ambedkar and other prestigious colleagues -Sarder Patel, etc. I am with the Congress with the attitude that they have taken against the time in which we are living and the ideas we are promoting.
Ram Guha responded to the controversy and said that it is not Maharashtra of Maharashtra Ambedkar, but Maharashtra of Nathuram Godse. What do you have to say?
Yes, I think Ram Guha is right. There is now an element that is trying to suppress the great Maharashtra that stands for improvement, creating an front line for improvement. My own family is associated with them, my grand uncle Shankar Pandurang was a close friend of Pandit Ranade. He was at that time Maharashtra in the whole country. It is regrettable that today it is ruled by another idea. But I can see that the true Maharashtra is getting stronger because I have received a lot of support from the Marathi states. Even they have threatened to boycott the entire conference, so I am very proud of Marathi Rajya that they are standing for freedom in this way.
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