Nayantara Sahgal was at the forefront of the ''award-wapsi'' campaign (File Photo)
Amid flak by opposition leaders and authors over rescinding the invitation to author Nayantara
Sahgal to inaugurate the 92nd all-India All Marathi literary meet, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) Monday distanced itself from the controversy.
In a statement, the CMO said the decision on who to invite for the meet is taken by the organisers and the state government has no role in it.
The CMO statement came after the organisers invited Ms Sahgal, 91, to attend the meet, scheduled this week at Yavatmal, and later cancelled it, citing law and order issues.
Opposition leaders like Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam alleged the invitation was cancelled at the behest of the ruling BJP.
The CMO statement said a section of media is dragging the state government's name in the controversy.
The Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Mahamandal (which organises the meet), is an autonomous body and neither the CM nor the state government interfere in its functioning, it said.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP was not impressed by the government's statement and said the invitation was cancelled "out of fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi" would not like if Ms Sahgal, niece of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, attended the literary meet.
The NCP said PM Modi always speaks against Nehru and asked Mr Fadnavis to re-invite Ms Sahgal for the meeting.
The noted English-language author who was at the forefront of the ''award-wapsi'' (returning of awards) campaign, was to inaugurate the meet on January 11 in the presence of Mr Fadnavis.
In 2015, several writers returned their awards to protest against what they described as "rising intolerance and growing assault on free speech" under the Narendra Modi government.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "The way Sahagal's invitation was cancelled by the organisers of the meet, the government's hand is there somewhere (in this)."
"Modi always speaks against Nehru. Sahgal belongs to Nehru's family. There is a fear in the mind of the Maharashtra BJP and the chief minister of Maharashtra that if Nayantara Sahgal attends the meeting, Modi won't be happy," Mr Malik said.
The invitation was cancelled after a member of the MNS threatened to disrupt the meeting opposing Ms Sahgal's presence, the NCP leader said.
"If the invitation was cancelled in the name of law and order, it is the responsibility of the Chief Minister, who is also home minister of the state, to convince Sahgal to attend the function," Mr Malik said.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray issued a statement Monday, admitting that one of his local party workers had opposed Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. "As the party chief, I am not against inviting her," Mr Thackeray said.
"If Sahgal's presence at the All India Literary Meet is transcending into a cultural exchange, I or my party will not oppose it," Thackeray said, adding that he "deeply regretted'' the inconvenience caused to supporters of such literary events by the action of a few of his men.
Mr Nirupam said the decision of the organisers to rescind the invite to Ms Sahgal was taken at BJP's behest. The MNS is just a front, he added.
"Literature should not surrender before politics. If a government is scared of writers, it means that its days are over," he said.
Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, however, said the state welcomed everyone.
"If someone had opposed Sahgal after her speech at the meet, then it could have been understood. It is not fair to oppose her completely. Maharashtra is a state that welcomes everyone to present their work," he said.
Noted Marathi author Aruna Dhere, who will preside over the event, also criticised the organisers for cancelling Sahgal's invitation.
"It is shocking that you respectfully invite someone and later back out. Sahgal should be invited (again) with respect," she said.
Laxmikant Deshmukh, the outgoing chairman of the literary meet, said the organisers should have thought before inviting Sahgal, as her line of thinking was well-known.
The literary meet's reception committee said the organisers had decided to revoke Ms Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet".
Meanwhile, several Marathi authors and journalists Monday announced they would be boycotting the meet to mark their protests over Ms Sahgal's ''insult'' by the meet's organisers.
Historian Ramachandra Guha tweeted, "The Maharashtra that fears the words of a ninety one year old woman writer is the Maharashtra of Godse and his mentors, not the Maharashtra of Ambedkar, Phule, Gokhale or Tilak."