Eyebrows raised as Puducherry lit fest gets saffron hue

Puducherry: The first edition of Puducherry Literary fest slated to be held from August 17 to 19 appears to have a predominant presence of speakers supporting the saffron ideology.

This has not gone down well with many who have criticised the organisers for selecting a host of speakers who are either sympathisers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

‘Bharat Shakti; the Pondy lit fest 2018’ “aspires to be different if not unique, in the circuit of arts and ideas festivals in India and abroad”.

The name Bharat Shakti is derived from philosopher Aurobindo who declared that “India is a Bharat Shakti the living energy of a great spiritual conception and fidelity to it is very principle of her existence.”

Some of the names expected to arrive at festival are celebrated authors like Amish Tripathi, who penned the popular Shiva trilogy, Aravindan Neelakanda, co-author of the book Breaking India, who is also known as staunch Hindutva writer, R. Jagannathan former editor of news website Firstpost and an unflinching defender of Modi’s policies and actions, Bibek Debroy , economist sympathetic to Modi, Swapan Das Gupta Rajya Sabha member and supporter of Bharatiya Janata Party, Meenakshi Jain political scientist and a staunch supporter of the Hindutva ideology, Kiran Vyas founder of Tapovan University of Yoga and   Pallavi Joshi, National Award winning actress.

The festival location, Puducherry, is a unique blend of Tamil and Indo French culture which was turned into the laboratory of new consciousness by the presence of Sri Aurobindo and Mother turned the land, says Lalit Varma of Aurodhan.

Replying to the criticisms on adding the name of Union minister Smriti Irani in the posters Mr Varma said “Ms Smriti Irani was the former minister of education and by adding her name in the posters the festival will get nationwide recognition.”