‘Truth-speaker’ was targeted in life, and death, too

“What was his great contribution to deserve 3-day mourning,” Twitter user Madhav asked about playwright Girish Karnad, who died Monday.

Madhav, whose followers include Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the microblogging platform, was just one among many “right-wingers” who targeted and trolled the Jnanpith awardee even as tributes poured in. Modi himself condoled Karnad’s death, hailing him for speaking “passionately on causes dear to him.”

And Karnad did speak passionately in April 2014, when he joined writers, such as UR Ananthamurthy, K Marulasiddappa and others, in urging voters not to elect Modi as prime minister. “An evil, like Modi, has entered the fray in Indian politics after a very long time,” Karnad had said at a news conference then, extending support to the Congress and thus, earning the wrath of Hindu nationalists.

Karnad was fearlessly vocal about his liberal views and staunchly opposed radical Hinduism. His prompted Vardhan Talera to write: “This anti-Hindu traitor was a regular character at every foreign-funded literature fest where Sanatana Dharma was denigrated. He was a Rothschild-sponsored Rhodes scholar, he hated Sanskrit and loved Urdu. He was a big fan of Tipu Sultan, the butcher of Hindus.”

In June 2017, Karnad showed up at Town Hall where a protest had been organised to condemn the lynchings of innocent Muslims allegedly by Hindutva mobs in northern India. Despite ailing health, Karnad joined the protesters while wearing tubes in his nose and carrying an oxygen cylinder.

With the same frail health, Karnad carried a placard announcing ‘Me Too Urban Naxal’ at an event September last organised to mark the first death anniversary of slain journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. “Karnad was an urban Naxal who slandered his own people & religion to appear liberal,” Kaustubh Pethe wrote in a tweet.

Karnad was on the ‘hit list’ of a right-wing group that allegedly killed Gauri, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed her murder.

And while Karnad’s family privately dealt with the tragedy, author Shefali Vaidya pointed out: “He wrote reams about how he doesn’t believe in any ‘Hindu rituals’, how he is an atheist and refused to sit for the shraddha for his father. Hope in his death at least he is not as hypocritical as Ananthamurthy, who too criticised Hindu rituals, but was cremated amidst Vedic chants.”

A few, like Rupesh R Sulikunte, displayed sagacity. “Though we have ideological differences,” he wrote, “I think I should remember his contributions to the field of literature and art at this moment.”