Mumbai: Renowned Writer Nayantara Sahgal’s invitation to inaugurate the All India Marathi Literary Meet was canceled for her stance against the ruling party said, Shiv Sena.
Shiv Sena – BJP’s ally claimed the inauguration which was scheduled for later this week was canceled as it would become quite uncomfortable for the ruling party given Sahgal’s opposition to BJP stated the daily editorial Saamana.
claimed the organizers, Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, had killed freedom of expression by canceling the invite, as Sahgal’s opposition to the BJP was well known, The Telegraph reported.
“The organizers realized that they will have to forego favours from the government if they went ahead with Nayantara Sahgal for the literary meet. They have killed the freedom of expression and self-respect of writers,” the editorial read.
The writer had been at the forefront of the protests against intolerance — ever since BJP came to power.
But Sahgal (91) is the most feared writer in politics. “She is feared by the ruling party today. She was jailed during the Emergency for speaking against (her cousin) Indira Gandhi. She is against everything that is wrong,” the editorial added.
The editorial claimed that the speech prepared by Sahgal for Friday’s inauguration would have referred to mob lynchings, politics of hatred, use of government machinery against the Opposition and stifling of dissenting voices among writers and journalists and would not have gone down well with the ruling establishment.
Her speech contents would openly speak about her concerns for freedom that seems to be under attack nowadays in the country, cow-related assaults and rewriting of history texts among other issues.
Well, it is not clear whether the writer had shared her speech with the organizers, as Maharashtra’s BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was scheduled to attend the meet.
Meanwhile, the CMO has clarified that it had nothing to do with the decision of the organizers.
A local unit called the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s local unit had threatened to disrupt the meeting because Sahgal is an English-language writer but But MNS chief Raj Thackeray claims that the party has no issue with the event.