Recalling recent incidents of right-wing ‘intolerance’ towards writers and artists, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has cautioned the Kerala society against such trends.
“Until recently, we all believed that such things wouldn’t happen in Kerala,” he said. “We believed that Kerala’s secular foundation was strong and that we had full freedom of expression.”
But the recent attacks on M.T. Vasudevan Nair, filmmaker Kamal, and others had shattered this belief, he said in his address at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Saturday.
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“Certain forces have started telling writers what not to write and publishers what not to publish,” he said. “Those who write against their diktats face the threat of attacks.”
He said these forces were trying to check the intellectual growth of Kerala society. “Their intervention is to prevent the emergence of modern and original thoughts in society.”
Mr. Vijayan termed such tendencies ‘poisonous germs’ that would cripple society.
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“The society should be eternally vigilant to fight off these poisonous germs,” he said. He cautioned that these forces were also implementing communal diktats.
He said that intolerance to new thoughts and violence against the freedom of expression of artists and writers were virulent and commonplace outside Kerala.
Recalling the exile of artist M.F. Husain and the murder of Pansare, Dabholkar, and Kalburgi, Mr. Vijayan said they had only exercised their constitutional right to freedom of expression. “Beware that such tendencies are coming to Kerala too,” he said.