MUMBAI, January 22: The Marathi literary community today came down heavily on writers Dr Namvar Singh and G P Deshpande, who, in a function on Wednesday criticised Jnyanpeeth Award winner V S Khandekar as `commercial' and `Mammon-hungry'. The function was held in New Delhi to pay tributes to the renowned Marathi writer on his birth centenary.Launching a scathing attack on Singh and Deshpande, Prof Ram Shewalkar said yesterday's incident proved that erudition does not necessarily bring about cultural refinement.
Terming Singh's remarks as perverse, noted critic D B Kulkarni said, ``Since communism has been wiped out not only in India but in the whole world, some frustrated communist intellectuals are now making a pathetic attempt to increase their own importance.''
Poet `Grace' said while everybody has a right to air his views, one has to choose the right platform for it. If Singh and Deshpande don't know the meaning of decency and decorum, they shouldn't enter the public discourse.
Dr Sunilkumar
Lavte, who has translated many of Khandekar's stories into Hindi, said both Singh's and Deshpande's writings are entangled in theories. Khandekar, on the other hand, did his best to solve societal problems through his writings. Khandekar's life and literature is inseparable from those concerns, he said.
Remarked Professor Vasant Kanetkar, ``Recently, renowned Marathi poet Grace had said gangs of Marathi literaries were formed on the line of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. It seems that is politics be the same gang. I am not surprised by G P Deshpande's improper, rude and envious remarks about V S Khandekar. Deshpande himself has the least of knowledge and sense of literature, and has been writing plays which are watched by no one. I strongly condemn Deshpande for his remarks.'' Dr Balasaheb Datar, veteran critic said, ``By calling Khandekar's Jnyanpeeth Award-winning work cheap, Deshpande has insulted the award selection committee. He is part of that group which believes that literature which becomes popular is
worst, and that which is read by no one is the best.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
