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Writer Shashi Deshpande quits Sahitya Akademi governing body

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Shashi Deshpande

Bengaluru: The institution, she said, ‘should speak for the large community of Indian writers, and must stand up and protest the murder of Professor Kalburgi and all such acts of violent intolerance’.

“Deeply distressed by the silence” of the Sahitya Akademi on the murder of Professor MM Kalburgi, award-winning novelist Shashi Deshpande has offered her resignation from the premier literary body’s General Council.

“I do this with regret, and with the hope that the Akademi will go beyond organising programmes, and giving prizes, to being involved with crucial issues that affect Indian writers’ freedom to speak and write,” Deshpande, a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel That Long Silence in 1990 and the Padma Shri award in 2009, wrote in her letter of resignation, addressed to the Akademi President Dr Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari.

Earlier this week, eminent writer Nayantara Sahgal and former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman Ashok Vajpeyi had returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards to protest the “assault on right to freedom of both life and expression”.

Noted Hindi writer Uday Prakash was the first to return his Sahitya Akademi award to protest the murder of Professor Kalburgi.

Dr Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari,
President,
Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi

Cc: Professor Chandrashekhar Kambar, Vice-President Sahitya Akademi, Dr K. Sreenivasarao, Secretary Sahitya Akademi

Dear Sir,

When I heard in November 2012 from the Sahitya Akademi that I had been nominated to the General Council of the Akademi in the individual category of writers, I felt honoured. I have always respected the Sahitya Akademi’s role as the single institution in India that brings together all the Indian languages under one umbrella, at the same time giving each language its rightful place and dignity.

Today, I am deeply distressed by the silence of the Akademi on the murder of Professor MM Kalburgi. Professor Kalburgi was a noted scholar, and a good and honest human being; he was also a Sahitya Akademi awardee and a member of its General Council until recently.

If the Akademi, the premier literary organisation in the country, cannot stand up against such an act of violence against a writer, if the Akademi remains silent about this attack on one of its own, what hope do we have of fighting the growing intolerance in our country? A few tame condolence meetings here and there for a member of our community cannot serve the purpose.

Sadly, it has become increasingly important to reaffirm that difference of opinion cannot be ended with a bullet; that discussion and debate are the only way a civilised society resolves issues. It has also become clear that writers, who are supposed to be the conscience-keepers of society, are no longer considered intellectual leaders; their voices no longer matter. Perhaps this is the right time for writers to reclaim their voices. But we need a community of voices, and this is where the Akademi could serve its purpose and play an important role. It could initiate and provide space for discussion and debate in public life. It could stand up for the rights of writers to speak and write without fear; this is a truth all political parties in a democracy are supposed to believe in. Silence is a form of abetment, and the Sahitya Akademi, which should speak for the large community of Indian writers, must stand up and protest the murder of Professor Kalburgi and all such acts of violent intolerance.

In view of the Akademi’s failure to stand up for its community of writers and scholars, I am, out of a sense of strong disappointment, offering my resignation from the General Council of the Sahitya Akademi. I do this with regret, and with the hope that the Akademi will go beyond organising programmes, and giving prizes, to being involved with crucial issues that affect Indian writers’ freedom to speak and write.

Shashi Deshpande
Bangalore
October 9, 2015

BJP’s strategy is to make Hindus, Muslims fight each other: Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul Gandhi

Mandya: Launching a direct attack on Prime Minister and BJP in the wake of Dadri beef lynching, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that they have a “strategy” to polarise the country by pitting Hindus and Muslims against each other as he remarked that Narendra Modi has a “history”.

“The BJP and the Prime Minister have a strategy of polarising this country. They have a strategy of making Hindus and Muslims fight against each other.

“You can see that in every election, polarisation taking place, riots taking place. There were BJP people involved in the Dadri incident,” the Congress vice president alleged while talking to reporters here.

Dismissing the Prime Minister’s pitch yesterday for communal harmony, he said that while it was very nice of Modi to make such comments, “the Prime Minister has a history and the PM has a party that is behaving in a completely different way, which he doesn’t seem to want to stop”.

Modi had yesterday pitched for communal harmony, saying Hindus and Muslims should not fight each other but together fight poverty.

Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit of party-ruled state during which he will meet farmers affected by drought and other agricultural problems, also accused the Centre of neglecting farmers’ interests.

“The central government does not think that agriculture or the farmer is important. Whether it is the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) or crops being destroyed by bad weather, the government does not seem to have a strategy. It does not give priority to farmers,” he said.

Ruing that farmers are committing suicide in large numbers, he insisted the central government needs to do something about it.

“The Prime Minister has to take a look at it and help the farmers of the country,” he said.

Contrasting the functioning of the previous UPA government with that of the present dispensation, Gandhi said the Congress-led government had given a loan waiver of Rs 70,000 crore to the farmers.

He will also undertake a ‘padyatra’ tomorrow and hold interactions with farmers, students and women workers in Haveri district.

(Agencies)

Sarah Joseph returns Sahitya Akademi award, K Satchidanandan quits all posts

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Sarah Joseph

Thiruvananthapuram: Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph has announced that she will return the Sahitya Akademi award, while noted poet K Satchidanandan resigned from all Akademi posts on Saturday.

Joseph, who won the prestigious honour for her novel ‘Aalahayude Penmakkal’ (Daughters of God the Father), said she would soon send the cash prize and plaque to the Akademi via courier.

This is the first time that a Malayalam writer has decided to return the Akademi honours to protest against the “communal policies” of the BJP-led NDA government.

“An alarming situation is being created in the country in all spheres of life after Modi government came into power. The religious harmony and secularism of the country is unprecedentedly under threat,” she told PTI from Thrissur.

She said three writers had already been killed and K S Bhagwan was facing life threat from communal forces. But, the Centre had done nothing to alleviate the growing fear among writers and activists and people in other sections of the society, she said.

Sixty-eight-year-old Joseph, who spearheaded feminist writing in Malayalam, also felt what Jnanpith laureate U R Ananthamurthy had said years ago about the life of writers under the Modi government was “absolutely true”.

“The visionary writer had actually predicted about the suppressed life which writers would have to live under Modi’s rule. His words have become a reality now,” she said.

Criticising Prime Minster Narendra Modi for his “delayed reaction” over the Dadri lynching, Joseph said the BJP government was even taking away the fundamental rights of people to choose their food.

“Our Prime Minister took nine days to react to the Dadri incident. His silence was scary and highly condemnable. In the backdrop of the recent hue and cry over beef consumption, I fear that even our right to choose food would be taken away from us,” she said, adding that she hoped that other writers would also come out protesting against these policies through their creative works.

A recipient of Kerala Sahithya Akademi Award, Vayalar Award and Muttathu Varkey Award, Joseph is known for strong characterisation and socially relevant themes in her novels and short stories.

Though she was a strong supporter of Left ideologies, Joseph later joined AAP and contested unsuccessfully from Thrissur constituency in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In a statement Satchidanandan said the Akademi had failed in its duty to stand with the writers and to uphold the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

He also stated that he was exiting from the General Council, Executive Board and the membership of its several committees.

(Agencies)

Karnataka: Two men raping woman isn’t gang-rape, says George, then apologises

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KJ George

Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister KJ George on Friday stirred a controversy by making an irresponsible statement that two men raping a woman is not gangrape.

George said, “How can you call it a gangrape? A gangrape is when four-five people are involved. We should condemn the people who did such an act.”

However, Mr George chose to apologize and said that his statement should not be misunderstood by people and media.

The controversial remarks came after media sought a response from George in alleged gangrape of a 22-year-old call centre employee by two men at knife point in their moving van after they offered to ferry her home.

The woman was waiting to hail a bus to return to her PG home and boarded the van which stopped by offering her a drop, City Police NS Megharikh said.

The woman, who hails from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, was allegedly gangraped on the night of October 3 by the vehicle driver and the cleaner, Megharikh said, adding the victim was taken to a deserted spot before she was dropped in Madiwala area here.

Police said for nearly three hours, the two men drove around deserted places of the Madivala area and raped the woman.

Condemning the statement, National Commission of Women Chairperson Lalita Kumarmangalam said, “Karnataka Minister is another example of someone not understanding issue of violence against women yet commenting on the matter thoughtlessly. Leaders in public life, especially those from political parties should think before talking. We will send him a suo moto, let’s see how he replies.”

The incident has come as a grim reminder of the 2012 gangrape of a paramedical student in Delhi, who later died, triggering a massive outrage across the nation.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh had blamed girls for being raped. “First girls develop friendship with boys. They when differences occur, they level rape charges. Boys will be boys, they commit mistakes. Will they be hanged for rape,” he had said.

In another controversial statement, the SP chief had remarked that “four boys cannot rape a girl. It is impossible. One commits rape and then four more are named.”

(Agencies)

Kejriwal sacks food minister for ‘corruption’

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Asim Ahmed Khan

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday sacked Food Minister Asim Ahmed Khan on charges of demanding a bribe from a builder.

Announcing the sacking at a press conference where he played a recorded tape of a conversation purportedly between Khan and the builder, Kejriwal said the case was being referred to the CBI.

“We won’t tolerate any corruption, even if it is our minister or legislator,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

“Till the CBI completes the investigation, he (Khan) will not be a minister,” he said. The food portfolio will go to AAP legislator Imran Hussain, he said.

(Agencies)

Indian maid’s hand chopped off by employer in Saudi Arabia

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Kashturi Munirathinam

Chennai: The family of a 55-year-old Indian woman, working as a domestic help in Saudi Arabia, has alleged her right hand was chopped off by her employer when she tried to escape harassment and torture.

Seeking help to bring Kashturi Munirathinam back from Saudi Arabia, her family has sent representations to the state and central governments. DMK MP Kanimozhi has also sent a letter to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj seeking her help.

“When she tried to escape harassment and torture, her right hand was chopped off by the woman employer. She fell down and sustained serious spinal injuries,” S Vijayakumari, sister of Munirathinam said.

She said Munirathinam had gone to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic help only three months ago.

“Kasturi’s employer was angered after she apprised local officials about the harassment she was facing there, she was not even provided food,” she said.

Asked how the family learnt about the incident, Vijayakumari said it was “through agents who sent her to Saudi.”

The attack occurred on the intervening night of September 29-30, she said.

“She has now been hospitalised in Riyadh and is in a serious condition, our appeal is please bring her back home immediately and help in her treatment,” she said.

While Munirathinam’s sister lives in Chennai, her family is in Moongilarei village of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu.

In her letter to Swaraj, Kanimozhi said Munirathinam’s condition was deteriorating and sought help to bring her back to Tamil Nadu.

“Steps should be taken to bring home Kasturi as soon as possible, I appeal on behalf of the victim’s family,” she wrote.

(Agencies)

Dadri lynching: Meat in Akhlaq’s fridge not beef, but mutton

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Akhlaq's daughter and sister at his residence in Bisara village, in Dadri. (Photo: IE by Gajendra Yadav)

Akhlaq’s daughter and sister at his residence in Bisara village, in Dadri. (Photo: IE by Gajendra Yadav)

New Delhi: A forensic test has proved that the meat which was found in Akhlaq’s fridge was mutton, and not beef.

Police had sent a sample of the meat from Akhlaq’s fridge for forensic testing.

Initial tests had suggested that it was mutton. However, the police had further sent the sample to another lab for a conclusive report.

The conclusive tests also showed that it was mutton and not beef, official sources said.

The police, however, is being criticized for sending the meat sample for a forensic test because whether it was mutton or beef had little bearing on the crime.

On September 28, Akhlaq was allegedly beaten to death and his son left injured by a 200-strong mob following a rumour that his family was involved in cow slaughter.

(Agencies)

60-year-old man beheads wife, walks streets with her head in hand

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Ramu Chavan

Pune: Residents of Pune were shocked on Friday morning by the sight of a 60-year-old man walking the streets of the city with the severed head of his wife, whom he allegedly beheaded with an axe.

Ramu Chavan, who works as a watchman in a housing complex in Katraj area, allegedly killed his 45-year-old wife because he suspected her of infidelity, police said.

Dramatic footage aired on television channels showed Chavan, clad in a white kurta and dhoti, nonchalantly walking on the street with the severed head in one hand and the axe in the other as two policemen tried to reason with him.

The footage showed several passers-by and motorists looking on as the policemen led Chavan away.

Chavan was taken into custody by police. According to the FIR filed by police, he killed his wife Sonubai because he suspected she was having an affair with her son-in-law.

He was booked under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to murder.

(Agencies)

Svetlana Alexievich wins Nobel Literature prize

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Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich's writing is critical of her home country's government

Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich’s writing is critical of her home country’s government

by BBC

Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich has won the 2015 Nobel Prize for literature.

Announcing the prize in Stockholm, the chair of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, called her writing “a monument to courage and suffering in our time”.

The award, presented to a living writer, is worth 8m kronor (£691,000).

Previous winners include literary heavyweights Rudyard Kipling and Ernest Hemingway. French historical author Patrick Modiano won in 2014.

It has been half a century since a writer working primarily in non-fiction won the Nobel – and Alexievich is the first journalist to win the award.

Her best-known works in English translation include Voices From Chernobyl, an oral history of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe; and Boys In Zinc, a collection of first-hand accounts from the Soviet-Afghan war. The title refers to the zinc coffins in which the dead came home.

The book caused controversy and outrage when it was first published in Russia, where reviewers called it a “slanderous piece of fantasy” and part of a “hysterical chorus of malign attacks”.

Alexievich has also been critical of her home country’s government, leading to a period of persecution – in which her telephone was bugged and she was banned from making public appearances.

She spent 10 years in exile from 2000, living in Italy, France, Germany and Sweden, among other places, before moving back to Minsk.

Witness accounts

The author was born in 1948 in the Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankivsk, then known as Stanislav,to a Belarusian father and Ukrainian mother.

The family moved to Belarus after her father completed his military service, and Alexievich studied journalism at the University of Minsk between 1967 and 1972.

Svetlana Alexievich’s works also won her the Swedish PEN prize

After graduation, she worked as a journalist for several years before publishing her first book, War’s Unwomanly Face, in 1985.

Based on interviews with hundreds of women who participated in the World War Two, it set a template for her future works, constructing narratives from witnesses to some the world’s most devastating events.

On her personal website, Alexievich explains her pursuit of journalism: “I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves.”

She has previously won the Swedish PEN prize for her “courage and dignity as a writer”.

Ms Danius said the author had spent nearly 40 years studying the people of the former Soviet Union, but that her work was not only about history but “something eternal, a glimpse of eternity”.

“By means of her extraordinary method – a carefully composed collage of human voices – Alexievich deepens our comprehension of an entire era,” the Swedish Academy added.

Alexievich was the bookmakers’ favourite to win 2015 Nobel award, according to Ladbrokes.

She beat other hot favourites Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.

She is the 14th woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its history.

A total of 112 individuals have won it between 1901 and 2015. The prize was suspended several times during the first and second world wars.

Love Jihad, killings don’t fit well with Modi’s emphasis on India rising: Rajan

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RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

New Delhi: Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on India being an economy which is trying to get it right does not fit well with incidents like that of love jihad and killings.

“I think there are always issues on the fringe. I think the Finance Minister has said very clearly that these tend to distract rather than contribute. And clearly these are certainly worrisome features which have to be dealt with on the basis of law and order and so on.

“The emphasis that Prime Minister and Finance Minister have been putting on this being an economy which is trying to get it right and move forward on sustainable basis. I think that does not fit well with these kinds of incidents. And we need to figure out the way to reduce and certainly, I think, there is law and order issue there,” he told Karan Thapar on India Today channel.

He was asked whether India’s image was being impacted on incidents like love jihad, conversion, ghar vapsi and the recent killings, an apparent reference to the murder of a man in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh over rumours of eating beef.

Replying to questions on his relationship with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Rajan said it “has been of the highest order ever since he moved into the office that was when I first met him.” “It has been great. I think these reports of differences tend to exaggerate and sometime over-complicate what is essentially a very strong relationship,” he said.

He said the media tends to emphasise differences rather than the large areas of commonality under competitive pressure for news.

Asked if he was open to a second term after 11 months when his term comes to an end, he said it was a hypothetical question. “I have not been offered one. We will cross the bridge when we come to it.”

On his larger than expected 0.50% cut in interest rate last week, Rajan said it was part of the process of getting investment.

Asked if the rate cut was enough to boost growth rate, he said, “The real deficiency in our economy today is private investment is not picking up as it should at this stage of the cycle. The key concern of policy maker is how to get it started. How we get it going.”

(PTI)

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