KOCHI: Unleashing a scathing attack on the Union Government, Marathi - English writer Kiran Nagarkar said the current dispensation at the Centre is a government of total incivility and poison. "A Kashmiri journalist was arrested for his alleged involvement in stone-pelting incidents. According to the NIA, a real journalist should cover only development activities.
Al Jazeera suspects the journalist might get sentenced for life for doing his work. Any word of dissent attracts sedition charges. There is one woman minister at the Centre, whenever I hear her speak I go and hide. If the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh could forego the cases against him, what is going to happen to the legal system of the country? The people who murdered Pehlu Khan have been given a clean chit and a case has been filed against his friends. We have to come together against this," he said while participating in a conversation with writer Anand Neelakandan at the International Literary Festival at Bolghatty Palace here on Thursday.
Kiran Nagarkar, whose play Bedtime Story was banned for 38 years, wanted to relook the character of Ekalavya and Draupathi, the fieriest woman in literature. On Shashi Tharoor's observation that it was the British rulers that perfected the caste system to divide Indians, he said the argument was not acceptable. The caste system has been deeply entrenched in Indian culture and it is curious even the so called outlaws follow it. The tribals marry within their community. Even the Muslims have 117 castes. The caste system has seeped in deeply in our culture. There is no escape unless there is a revolution, he said.
Nagarkar said the tribals are being treated badly by society. The Congress, the BJP and others take note of them only during elections. If the tribals, Dalits and backward people come together, they will be 25 per cent of the population and can change the face of India. When Donald Trump imposed travel ban on six Muslim majority countries, Americans gathered in front of airports defending those people. We have to get together and the numbers will be in our favour, he said.
If my relatives are blinded by pellets I am not going to forgive them for the next 50 years. We are inviting unrest. We are not giving them jobs. Is this not the ideal way of inviting ISIS here, he asked.