Close on the heels of a controversy over two senior RSS functionaries being included in the Jaipur Literature Festival line-up and exclusion of some well-known writers as speakers, the organisers of the prestigious event issued a release on Thursday affirming their commitment to plurality of ideas.
“For a decade, the Jaipur Literature Festival has stood for diversity of ideas, languages, nationalities and subjects. The 2017 edition is no different in featuring multiple voices and viewpoints across genres collectively on one platform,” said the release. “The festival continues to uphold and celebrate its core values which place equity, democratic access and free speech above all. It strongly believes that for dialogue to be meaningful, we must have representation from all points of view.”
The release came just after media reported that the RSS’ national spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya and its joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale were part of the line-up for the 2017 edition of the festival. The reports also expressed concern over writers Ashok Vajpeyi, Uday Prakash and K. Satchidanandan, who were among those who returned awards protesting what they saw as 'growing intolerance', not being among the speakers this time. However, the release maintained the festival’s commitment to ideological diversity: “This is neither the first nor the last instance where we have welcomed speakers from the right, left and centre and allowed our audiences to form their own views at the end of each session of debate and discussion.”
The prestigious festival is no stranger to controversy. In 2012, renowned writer Salman Rushdie had to back out from attending the event fearing large-scale protests. In 2103, veteran academic Ashis Nandy got into trouble after his remarks on corruption were seen by some as insulting to people from the OBC, SC and ST categories, despite his claim that he had been misinterpreted.
