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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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Agencies
January 26,2020

Guwahati, Jan 26: Four powerful grenade explosions--three in Dibrugarh and one in Charaideo districts--rocked Assam Sunday morning as the country celebrated Republic Day, police said.

In Dibrugarh district, an explosion took place at Graham Bazar and another beside a gurudwara on A T Road, both under Dibrugarh police station.

Another explosion rocked the oil town of Duliajan whose details are still awaited, police said.

Another explosion rocked Teok Ghat under Sonari police station of Charaideo district, they said.

Senior officials have rushed to the explosion sites and details of casualty are awaited, police added.

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News Network
June 6,2020

New Delhi, Jun 6: With 9,887 new positive cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count touched 2,36,657 on Saturday surpassing Italy's latest tally of over 2.34 lakh, taking India to the sixth spot among countries with the highest caseloads of the virus.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said that India registered a spike of 9887 new cases and 294 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the tally to 1,15,942 active cases and 6642 deaths.

Today's count was the highest single-day spike in the country, which has now overtaken Italy, according to the tally posted by the Johns Hopkins University which posted that globally the coronavirus had infected over 66.64 lakh people and claimed over 3.91 lakh lives so far.

In india, the MoHFW informed that 1,14,073 persons have been cured/discharged/migrated so far.

Maharashtra remains the worst-hit State as the total number of COVID-19 positive cases reached 80,229. While the total number of active cases in the state stands at 42,224.

In Tamil Nadu, 28,694 cases have been detected so far while Delhi has reported 26,334 coronavirus cases.

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Agencies
April 23,2020

New Delhi, Apr 23: With an increase of 1,229 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases reached 21,700, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

The tally is inclusive of 16,689 active cases, 4,325 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated, while 686 patients who have died due to the deadly virus.

According to the ministry's data, Maharashtra is on the top of the list with most COVID-19 cases, 5,652 cases of which 789 patients have recovered and 269 patients succumbing to coronavirus.

Gujarat and Delhi are second and third on the list respectively with Gujarat having 2407 cases of which 179 patients have recovered and 103 deaths. Meanwhile, in Delhi, the tally stands at 2248 cases of which 724 patients have recovered and 49 patients have died from COVID-19.

Rajasthan's tally stands at 1,890 cases with 230 patients cured while 27 deaths have been reported as of Thursday.

Madhya Pradesh has 1695 cases of which 148 patients have recovered and 81 deaths reported. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, stands with 1629 cases of which 662 patients have recovered and 18 have died due to the deadly virus.

Goa has seven cases reported of which all seven patients have recovered from the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on April 14, that the nationwide lockdown would be extended to May 3.

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