Academy Award winner and novelist Harish had run himself into trouble after his novel drew some flaks for his content that allegedly hurt the religious sentiments of Hindu. His novel, ‘Meesha’ set in a period almost half a century ago is told from a Dalit perspective. A conversation from the novel in which it was said that Hindu women dress up neatly and go to the temple to convey the message that they are available for a physical relationship had caused quite an uproar.
It was added that the Hindu women keep themselves away from the temple during the time of menstrual cycle as they are not ‘available’ then and that the Hindu priests are ‘experts’ in such cases.
Kerala Government had come out openly in support of the author. After Public works and Registration Minister G Sudhakaran exhorted the public to react against the protest raised by right-wing organizations, the Chief Minister himself has now come up with a Facebook post, voicing his solidarity with the author.
Pinarayi Vijayan’s facebook post says it won’t allow any attack on the freedom of expression. “Creative writing can only happen at fearless atmosphere, there won’t be a soft stand towards anything that strangles this freedom. Harish, the author of Meesha shouldn’t be upset about this. Go ahead bravely, wading off all the obstacles” said the honourable chief minister. 
But director Ali Akbar, who responded to Pinarayi’s facebook post, voicing his different opinion, apparently had more people reacting positively to his comment. Ali Akbar, in a sarcastic tone, taking a jibe at the minister said we need more sympathy for minority and more occasions where the word ‘intolerance’ is lavishly used. He says only Hindu communalism should be discussed and “anyone who writes against Parda should be out of their religion and anyone who writes Muhammad should have his hands cut off”. Ali Akbar obviously was referring to the different situation in Kerala where Islamic terror was brushed under the carpet by mainstream parties.
While Pinarayi Vijayan’s post had a total of 5.5 reactions with 4.4 thumbs up, Ali Akbar’s comment had 9.3k reactions with 8k likes to it. It seems a huge section of communist party lovers also agrees with Ali, following the recent incident of the death of Abhimanyu at the hands of SDPI.
Post Your Comments