Sahitya Akademi winner Imayam slams case against Viduthalai Sigappi

CHENNAI: A day after the Tamil Nadu police registered a case against Viduthalai Sigappi, an assistant director to Pa Ranjith, on charges of defaming the Hindu Gods, writer Imayam strongly condemned the police action and said it amount to "intimidation" of writers and curbing their creativity to express their views and thoughts through different form of arts and literature.

The police have invoked Sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153 A (1) (a) (promote enmity between groups through words), 295 (A) (deliberate act insulting religion), 505 (1) (b) (causing fear and alarm in public), 505 (2) (statements promoting enmity) of IPC against Vigneshwaran (alias) Viduthalai Sigappi.

The case has been filed following a complaint from Suresh Prathasarathi, president of Bharath Hindu Munnani.

The speech was made on April 30 as part of a literary event organised by Neelam Cultural Centre. He highlighted the failure of the system to do away with manual scavenging and prevent the deaths of the underprivileged while being engaged in manual scavenging.

The Sahitya Akademi winner took to social media to strongly condemn the police action and said, "Such action is against the creativity of writers."

"If a person, being a Hindu, can praise and worship the gods. What will stop him or her from criticizing the same god? Hailing from the same faith (Hindu) that discriminates against a person by his birth and denies him equal rights deserved to be criticised, he (Viduthalai Sigappi) has all the rights to vent his ire through writings," Imayam told DT Next.

He called the case a "Vendetta" for asking the right question. "For centuries, certain communities oppressed and endured untold sufferings. They denied rights to education, enter temples and offer prayers to their gods and goddesses. Still, they are suffering and forced into manual scavenging. So, the poet called the gods to bail them out from this suffering. It is a way of expressing one's suffering," he added.

Recalling Dravidian icon and former chief minister C N Annadurai's writings, particularly 'Thee Paravattum', Imayam said that he was a strong critic of the Hindu religion and very harsh on its regressiveness. "Had Anna been alive, would you file a case against him for his unvocal speech against the Hindu religion and its egregious impact on fellow human beings?" he wondered.

Joining the issue, VCK MP and writer D Ravikumar also raised the same question. He tweeted, "If a case can be filed for writing a poem on Raman, will they file a case against Anna for his play 'Neethi Devan Mayakkam' that criticised Ramayanam and collection of his speech 'Thee Paravattum'?"

OPS demands strict action against persons insulting Hindu gods: The expelled AIADMK leader, O Panneerselvam, on Wednesday demanded the immediate intervention of Chief Minister M K Stalin in connection with the poem penned by Pa Ranjith's assistant director Viduthalai Sigappi. OPS claimed that the poem denigrate the Hindu gods and urged the CM to take measures to prevent such incidents in the future