‘Protesting writers should back PM’s growth agenda’
VARANASI: Stating that artistes and litterateurs protesting against ‘intolerance’ in the country belonged to a “particular ideology”, union minister for culture Mahesh Sharma on Saturday urged them to “not portray a negative image of India and join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of development and good governance”.
“The litterateurs who belong to a particular ideology didn’t want to see Narendra Modi as the country’s prime minister and had even campaigned against him by writing some articles. Now that Modi has become PM, he is not acceptable to them. I urge them to do some ‘rashtra chintan’ (think of the welfare of their country) and join our Prime Minister’s goal to take the nation forward on the path of development,” Sharma told media persons at the PM’s public relation office in Ravindrapuri here.
He also dismissed claims that intolerance was rising in the country. He attempted to play down the ‘award wapsi’ controversy by insisting that only 36 out of 6,000 awardees had returned their awards.
Asking the protesters to question the state governments for the murders of rationalists MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare and the lynching of Ikhlaq Ahmed in Noida, Sharma said, “The intellectuals should question the state governments for these incidents. What is being called intolerance is actually deterioration of law and order, which is a state issue. We will join them in their protest.”
“Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka so their government should be asked about it, Dadri lynching happened in UP and the state government should answer questions about the deterioration of law and order in the state. Similarly, you should ask the Maharashtra government why they failed to protect Pansare,” he said.