Storm over Godse reference in Marathi lit fest souvenir

MUMBAI: Controversy marred the inaugural session of the 84th Marathi Sahitya Sammelan on Saturday over a literary souvenir, published by the organizers, which carried a reference to Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's assassin. The booklet, titled "Shreesthanak", described Godse as a person who had immense respect for Gandhi and a brief introduction described him as "a hard-line Hindutvavadi and an ardent devotee of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar".

Godse's mention in the souvenir triggered a storm at the Dadoji Kondeo stadium at Thane, the venue of the lit fest, as left-wing writers and other politicians seized the opportunity to lash out at the organizing committee presided over by senior journalist and writer Uttam Kamble.

NCP leader Jitendra Awhad and leader of the opposition in the Thane Municipal Corporation Najeeb Mulla trooped to the venue and charged that Godse's mention in the souvenir was a plot by a handful of elements to embarrass Kamble, who belonged to the dalit community.

The entire episode reflected the bitter caste divide as Awhad lashed out at the Brahmin-dominated organizing committee and burnt copies of the booklet. The NCP members demanded an unconditional apology from the organizing committee and demanded that the booklet be withdrawn immediately.

The issue was settled after Kamble expressed regret at the reference to Godse in the official magazine and assured withdrawal of all copies. Earlier, speaking in his valedictory address, Kamble lamented about the ideological bankruptcy in Marathi literature and said writers should not hesitate to take stand on social issues which are affecting the civil society.

Meanwhile, literary circles in Thane also seemed critical of the organizing committee for ignoring eminent scholar and writer-editor Ram Patwardhan and not inviting him to the three-day festival. "Patwardhan sir ... has contributed in shaping writers for four decades. However, the organizers did not bother to send an invitation card to him," a writer-poet told TOI.