THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: MT Vasudevan Nair is one of the rare talents Malayalam gave to world literature, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday while conferring the Kerala Legislature International Book Festival Award to the writer.
MT could not attend the event due to ill health. Satish Kumar accepted the award on his behalf. Pinarayi said the function becomes meaningful when a person such as MT gets felicitated. Inaugurating the book fest, the CM spoke on the importance of reading in the contemporary world to resist fascism and dictatorship.
“Our culture and life move according to the ideas around us. By reading a book, we get the ideas and values it represents and this takes the individual and society forward,” Pinarayi said. He said the book fest should serve as an example of cultural richness of Kerala and Keralites.
“Sharjah and Jaipur book festivals have attracted a lot of attention. To this end, we can expect the assembly book festival to gain strength with each passing year,” he said. Pinarayi said reading, thinking and speaking freely are essential to the healthy existence of democracy. “For then people will not fall for organised and fake propaganda. Dictators and fascists fear such people and hence, always try to destroy the books that give people strength,” he said. Speaker A N Shamseer presided over the function.