Sena alleged this was done by the meet's organisers as they feared that the views of Sahgal, who is "a rebellious author", may invite the government's ire.
Plunging into the controversy over author Nayantara Sahgal's invite for inaugurating the Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal being cancelled, the Shiv Sena has attributed this to her stance against the BJP regime on issues like mob lynchings.
Sena alleged this was done by the meet's organisers as they feared that the views of Sahgal, who is "a rebellious author", may invite the government's ire. Without naming the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), whose local functionaries had initially opposed to Sahgal's invitation on grounds that she was a non-Maharashtrian, the editorial said, they were "acting at someone's behest".
After the controversy, the organisers of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, which will be held from January 11, had cancelled the invite to Sahgal. However, the MNS chief had later clarified his party had no objections to Sahgal's presence at the inaugural session.
An editorial on Tuesday in the party mouthpiece Saamna, which has party president Uddhav Thackeray as the editor and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut as the executive editor, said the literary meet's organisers killed the freedom of expression and self-respect of writers by rescinding the invite..
"Sahgal's invite has been cancelled as it was feared her speech may be inconvenient for those in power in Maharashtra. This is the first time in history that the invite given for the inauguration has been scrapped," the editorial said, adding that the "conspiracies that took place behind the scenes" did not suit the traditions of Maharashtra.
The editorial questioned why the litterateurs were silent on issues like the status of the Marathi language, the state's border dispute with Karnataka and the "aggression" on Marathi in Mumbai.
"Nayantara's origins lie in Marathi and the Konkan. She is the daughter of Indira Gandhi's aunt Vijayalakshmi Pandit and her father Barrister Ranjit Sitaram Pandit was a scholar of culture and Sanskrit. They (Pandit's) hail from Kudal region in the Konkan," it stated, pointing to how Sahgal had opposed Indira Gandhi's Emergency and was arrested for her views.
"...she is not against any political party or ideology but against humbug, falsification and extreme views. She would have put forth her views during the inauguration of the Yavatmal Sahitya Sammelan. She had expressed her opinion about beef-related lynchings, the politics of hate, misuse of government machinery for political vendetta, political pressure on the media and daylight murders of writers. This printed speech was sent to the organisers beforehand. Hence, it seems the organisers of the meet may have felt that inviting Nayantara would lead them being deprived of financial aid," the editorial alleged.
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