IFFI ‘censorship’ row: Late BJP MLA’s poem on caste discrimination triggers controversy

While Gautam expressed his disappointment and Wagh’s nephew called it an “act of censorship”, the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), the nodal agency that organises IFFI on behalf of the Goa government, said the decision not to include the poem was taken “purely for creative reasons”. ESG is also the publisher of The Peacock.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Gautam, the illustrator, wrote, “I was asked to not publish a poem by Vishnu Surya Wagh for today’s issue. Wagh’s poem ‘Secular’ (is one that) I carefully chose because it expresses so many incidents of caste discrimination by many on a daily basis in both urban and rural areas. I myself have gone through something similar many times in my life, not just as an unknown student, but also as a well-known artist.”

 

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A post shared by Siddhesh Gautam (@bakeryprasad)

Saying he had “nothing to lose”, Gautam shared the poem on Instagram.

Speaking to The Indian Express about the decision not to print the poem, ESG CEO Ankita Mishra said: “The decision to not print the article was an editorial call taken purely for creative reasons and had nothing to do with the content of the article. (The) Peacock has been a flagbearer for artistic freedom since its inception, and it is our endeavour that it continues to be so.”

Wagh’s nephew, Kaustubh Naik, said The Peacock team had asked him a few days ago to translate the poem from Wagh’s collection titled Sudirsukta. “They wanted me to vet some poems. I asked them if they had any specific poem in mind and was asked to translate this particular one. The poem was to accompany a double-page spread illustration on Wagh by the anti-caste artist Siddhesh Gautam in the Sunday edition of The Peacock.”

However, on Saturday, Naik said he was informed by ESG officials that the poem would not be printed. “The poem was not published while the illustration was carried,” he said.

He said that while he did not know the reasons behind the decision not to carry the poem, the “anti-establishment stance” and themes in Wagh’s poems could be one of them.

 

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A post shared by Siddhesh Gautam (@bakeryprasad)

“The poetry collection Sudirsukta caused some controversy in 2017 … If you read the collection, you realise that Wagh recorded histories of Goa’s Bahujan Samaj through his poems. The use of language and its imagery and themes are rather revolutionary in Goa’s literary scene. The poems take an anti-establishment stance. Perhaps that’s the reason,” Naik said, adding, “It is unfortunate that this act of censorship occurred on the eve of Constitution day.”

In 2017, Sudirsukta – Hymns of a Shudra, an anthology of poems in Konkani by Wagh, was selected as the winner of the Goa Konkani Academy Award in the poetry category. However, after the news of the award was “leaked” before it was officially announced, a controversy erupted regarding the book, which faced allegations of “endorsing communal views”.

The state government subsequently cancelled all the literature and culture awards, including the one for Wagh. The Goa Police had also lodged an FIR against Wagh and the book’s publishing house on charges of obscenity.

Wagh’s brother, Ramrao Wagh, said: “His poems talked about caste discrimination and the pain suffered by the Bahujan Samaj. His poems exposed the stark realities of society, and this is probably why his work is being censored. I was proud when I heard that his work is being featured in a centre-spread in the arts and culture edition of the daily at IFFI… But it is unfortunate that a poem, which is a creative function, has been withheld.”

Wagh, a former vice-chairman of ESG, died in 2019.