MH-LITERATURE MEET-GADKARI

Union minister Nitin Gadkari

Sunday advised fellow politicians not to interfere in "other

fields".

The senior BJP leader was speaking at the valedictory

function of the annual Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal which

has been embroiled in controversy after an invitation to

writer Nayantara Sahgal was withdrawn.

Without making a direct reference to the row, Gadkari

said, "Politicians should learn not to interfere in other

fields. The people who are in universities, educational

institutions, literature and poetry, they should be dealing

with their (respective) areas.

"When I say there should not be any interference, it

does not mean there should not be any contact between the

people from the field of literature and politicians," he

added.

"During the Emergency, speeches of (Marathi) writers

like Durga Bhagwat and P L Deshpande drew bigger crowds than

political rallies. Both of them, however, returned to

literature after elections. They did not even seek political

posting such as Rajya Sabha membership," Gadkari noted.

While Bhagwat had criticised the Emergency openly,

Deshpande campaigned for the Janata Party after the Emergency

was lifted and elections were announced in 1977.

"There should be cooperation, coordination and

communication between writers and politicians. The lack of

communication leads to miscommunication and then arguments,"

Gadkari said.

"We should only respect the person who is expressing

opposite views," said the minister.

Sahgal, a noted Indian English writer who was in the

forefront of `Award-wapasi' campaign some years ago, had been

invited to inaugurate the 92nd Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya

Sammelan which started at Yavatmal on January 11.

But organisers withdrew the invite after local leaders

of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) opposed invitation to

an "English-language writer".

The decision drew flak from several quarters even as

MNS chief Raj Thackeray said it was not his party's official

stand. Opposition parties alleged that it was the BJP which

did not want Sahgal to attend the meet, a charge the state

government denied.