Intolerance row: Kannada writers withdraw from Bangalore Literature Festival, question political leanings of director

Two Kannada writers have withdrawn from the from the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) 2015 scheduled for December 5 and 6 at Bengaluru in protest against the director Vikram Sampat.

According to Hindustan Times, BLF director Vikram Sampat had criticised the flood of writers returning awards in the wake of 'growing intolerance' in the country. In particular, he had questioned why no awards were returned when rationalists were killed and books were banned.

Sampat had written an article in a prominent newspaper calling the writers 'sheep'.

Sampat said in the article, "It is intriguing that the writer community was largely silent when books were banned, authors attacked, and rationalists killed. Why the selective outrage, as though apocalypse has descended on us as far as freedom of expression is concerned? Intolerance and violence against a contrary opinion is not a sudden phenomenon in India." 

Writers Dayanand TK and Arif Raja have now shot off angry letters to the festival organisers, questioning the political leanings of Sampat.

Arif Raja rubbished Sampat's claims, saying that writers had been protesting for a long time and that they had protested the Emergency as well. He called Sampat's comments 'politically motivated and childish'.

Shivaram Karanth had returned his Padma award and Chandrashekar Patil (Champa) had lost his job because he opposed Indira Gandhi, said Arif Raja.

Dayanand TK, said in his letter that he had misgivings about some of the sponsors of the festival.

He also said he did not want to be part of a literature fest whose principal organisers 'don’t understand the sentiment and the feeling of terror' that forced the country’s intellectuals to speak out.

Famous Malayalam writer K Sachidanandan, said he too refused to be part of BLF this year, coming out in support of Raja and Dayanand.