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Mixed views on Karnad's outburst against Naipaul

[email protected] (IANS)
November 4, 2012

girishkarnad


Mumbai, November 4: Author Girish Karnad's outburst questioning an award conferred on Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul here four days ago elicted a mixed bag of reactions here Saturday. Karnad had called Naipaul anti-Muslim.

Speaking at the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LifFest here Friday, Karnad surprised the audience by questioning the lifetime achievement award conferred on Naipaul on account of his (Naipaul) anti-Muslim remarks.

Karnad had said: "When it comes to an Indian award given to an author of Indian descent in India, should not his irresponsible remarks (about Muslims) also be considered?"

Naipaul has been criticised for referring to the Muslim community as "a bunch of raiders and marauders" and Karnad referred to some of his writings to justify his point.

Naipaul's friend and author Farookh Dhondy dismissed Karnad's remarks saying it appeared "like a courtroom where the prosecution was allowed to make points but the defence was silenced".

"Naipaul has never expressed views about the religion or any animosity towards Muslims," Dhondy said.

He said that Naipaul's wife Nadira is a Pakistani and his other family members also belong to the Muslim community.

Anil Dharker, director of the LitFest, also sided with Naipaul.

"The award has been conferred for a body of works and not for a select few remarks," Dharker said.

However, many in the audience supported Karnad though some were angry at not being allowed to present an opposing viewpoint.

Referring to the fall of Vijayanagar empire, Karnad said that while history tells a totally different story, Naipaul has written in his book "India: A Wounded Civilisation" that Hampi pertained to "vibrant Muslims destroying decadent Hindus, which is a generalisation and simplification of the events to fit into his thinking".

The LifFest opened Oct 31 and will go on till Nov 4.



Related: Karnad slams Naipaul for his views on Muslims, says no apology

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News Network
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: India on Wednesday reported a spike of 9,985 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's COVID-19 count to 2,76,583, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

279 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll to 7,745.

The total number of active cases has reached 1,33,632 while 1,35,205 patients have recovered. While one person has migrated.

With 90,787 cases, Maharashtra reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country followed by Tamil Nadu with 34,914 cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,45,216 samples were tested in the last 24 hours while overall 50,61,332 samples have been tested so far.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: Twenty-one Italian tourists and three Indian tour operators have been sent to an ITBP quarantine facility in Delhi on Tuesday for suspected coronavirus exposure, official sources said.

Health Ministry sources said these foreigners, 13 women and eight men, were in the same group of which an Italian and his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan capital Jaipur.

“His (Italian in Jaipur) condition is stable,” a source said.

Three Indians, who were accompanying this Italian group as tour operators, have also been sent to the ITBP facility in Chhawla area of south-west Delhi, they said.

All these people, staying at a five-star hotel in south Delhi, have been put in “preventive isolation” at the ITBP camp and their samples will be taken on Wednesday, sources said.

The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an IAF plane from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

The Indian Defence Ministry, which had in its document that China intruded into the Indian territory in eastern Ladakh in early May, on August 6 took down the page which it had uploaded on its website.

According to a report by news channel NDTV, the ministry, in its document, had said the Chinese aggression has been "increasing along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and more particularly in Galwan valley since May 5."

"The Chinese side has transgressed in the areas of Kungrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong Tso Lake on May 17-18," the document, titled 'Chinese Aggression on LAC' stated.

The document revealed that "... a violent face-off incident took place between the two sides on June 15, resulting in casualties on both sides."

After the clash, a second corps commander level meeting took place on June 22 to discuss the modalities of de-escalation. "While engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged," it said.

A defence ministry spokesperson told the news channel that the document "did not go through him".

The opposition Congress, meanwhile, asked the government why the report was taken down with party leader Rahul Gandhi alleging that removal of the document from websites would not change facts.

"Forget standing up to China, India's PM lacks the courage even to name them. Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites won't change the facts," Gandhi tweeted.

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