September 21, 2013

Professor UR Ananthamurthy, the highly respected Kannada writer, has been harshly attacked for expressing his considered opinion of Mr Narendra Modi, who is a prime ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections. Some of these attacks have been made by leaders of the BJP, who have called Mr Ananthamurthy “undemocratic” for criticizing Mr Modi. *

Such attacks are not unusual; over the past decade, several Indian writers, artists, film-makers and ordinary citizens have been attacked and sometimes threatened by interest groups and political supporters from almost all of the country’s major parties, for acts of political criticism. All of us at the newly established PEN Delhi Centre would like to say that Mr Ananthamurthy does not stand alone, and nor do any members of the literary community who have faced threats for exercising their right to free expression. Criticising any leader, political party or indeed any institution is…