Two Kannada poets withdraw from lit fest

Expressing concern over the stand of one of the organisers of the Bangalore Literature Festival against writers returning their awards, two young Kannada poets have withdrawn their participation in the fest.

The event is scheduled to be held in the City on December 5 and 6.

In a letter, Dayananda T K said the pro-establishment stand militated against his support for writers who had returned the awards as a protest against rising incidents of intolerance. He said he was embarassed that some of the festival organisers had even signed a petition containing allegations against the nation’s well-respected historians.

Poet Arif Raza, in his letter, objected to the literature festival organiser and historian-writer Vikram Sampath dubbing those returning awards as having a fascist viewpoint.

Sampath had maintained that no writer had returned awards when Emergency was imposed. Terming this a “sign of ignorance”, Raza reasoned that Tagore had returned his knighthood protesting the imperialist rule and Karanth had given back his Padmashree against the imposition of Emergency.

He pointed out that there were hundreds of writers who had lost their jobs and were imprisoned for protesting Emergency.

 Mahatma Gandhi viewed the caste system as harmony, but for Ambedkar it was exploitation. Citing such reasons, Raza expressed his inability to take part in the fest.