K. SatchidanandanIn a clear response to the Sangh Parivar forces who have been asking dissenters to go to Pakistan, Malayalam poet K. Satchidanandan on Monday said that the neighboring country will be Asia's cultural capital soon if so many writers and intellectuals are sent there.
The prime minister and the Sangh Parivar want the artists who dare to say that the emperor is naked to go to Pakistan, Satchidanandan said, addressing a delegate meet as part of the national conference of the All India Insurance Employees Association here. He was referring to instances of BJP leaders attacking dissenting writers and artists, saying they should leave India and go to Pakistan.
"After M.F. Hussain and U.R. Ananthamurthy, now the Sangh Parivar wants Sharukh Khan, Nanditha Das and even (Malayalam film-maker) Kamal to go to Pakistan. Their approach is similar to the Fascist Goebbelsian stance that those who speak of culture will be shot down. There should be strong resistance to this," he said.
The veteran writer said the BJP and RSS supporters had not read anything on the concepts of fraternity and goodness preached in the Rig Veda and the Upanishads.
He said the Sangh Parivar hailed death and not life. "They glorify and celebrate death to justify killing others. This is similar to ISIS terrorists' call to die for religion," he said.
Writers returned the Sahitya Akademy awards in a gut reaction to rising intolerance. But the government portrayed it as a conspiracy, he said.
A staunch critic of the right-wing Hindutva, Satchidanandan was at the forefront of the writers' protests against religious intolerance which, they say, is on the rise since the BJP came to power at the Center.
