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Journalism of Courage
The BJP Monday filed a complaint against Kannada writer U R Ananthamurthy for his personal attacks on Narendra Modi but the Jnanpith awardee continued his tirade against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate calling him a “political bully”.
The BJP, in its complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer Karnataka claimed that Ananthamurthy “being a government official” violated the model code by campaigning for the Congress. “Ananthamurthy is Chancellor of a Central University at Gulbarga. It is not fair on his part to campaign for a political party,” the BJP said in its plea that sought legal action.
A group of eight Kannada literary figures, led by Ananthamurthy and Girish Karnad, had called Modi a “dictator” and had supported the Congress party.
BJP spokesperson Suresh Kumar had accused the writers, Ananthamurthy in particular of nursing “blind hatred for Modi’’. The Jnanpith awardee has been “speaking like a Congress spokesperson” on the pretext of freedom of speech, the BJP complaint stated.
On Monday, the writer, addressing a function, said Modi was a “political bully” who browbeat people and made them cowards as he had done with Muslims in Gujarat.
Last year, Ananthamurthy had said he would not want to live in an India where the prime minister is Narendra Modi. Though he has admitted his statement may have been exaggerated, he has also said that if Modi comes to power, it would mark a civilisational shift.
“Modi wants India to be a lion but as a Gandhian I can tell you that Gandhiji wanted India to be a porcupine,” said Ananthamurthy.
