Goan writers put off IFFI protest, will join march in Kolhapur
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 20 November 2015 14:19 IST
Goan writers have decided not to go ahead with their protest during IFFI since the issue of increasing intolerance is being politicised by the Congress in Goa.
Instead, they would attend the protest meeting organised in Kolhapur on 27 November, one day in advance of Com Govind Pansare’s birth anniversary.
Rather than returning their respective Sahitya Academy awards individually, the award-winning writers had preferred to come together and voice out their protest against increasing intolerance in the society.
They had joined the nationwide protest against killings of writers and thinkers like Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Com Govind Pansare of Maharashtra and Prof M M Kalburgi of Karnataka.
They had also deplored the silence maintained by the Sahitya Academy and demanded condemnation of the killings and acts of intolerance by religious fanatics.
“The issue of Sahitya Academy is over after India’s premiere institute of literature took a bold stand and condemned the attacks. We will now join the nationwide actions, planned in a much more organised manner”, said Damodar Mauzo, Goa’s eminent Konkani writer.
Datta Damodar Naik, another Sahitya Academy winner who had taken initiative, told goanews.com that their first action would be to participate in the solidarity action organised in Kolhapur, across Goa border, on 27 November.
Both the writers are also upset that the Congress in Goa has politicised the issue of intolerance by organising a rally against increasing intolerance.
“Tomorrow unnecessarily we will be linked to the Congress when we are completely apolitical. We have thus decided to go independent, along with the writers at national level”, said Mauzo.
