Pondy Lit Fest’s guest list raised many eyebrows for attendees in support of saffron ideology. (Source: @PondyLitFest/Twitter)
The Pondy Lit Fest 2018 is all set for its first edition — Bharat Shakti — for literature lovers from August 17 to 19. The festival, which will touch upon themes of literary, cultural, social, artistic and political importance, gets its name from philosopher Sri Aurobindo’s quote that reads thus: “India is a Bharat Shakti the living energy of a great spiritual conception and fidelity to it is very principle of her existence.”
Key speakers include Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles Smriti Z Irani, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy as chief guests. The festival is being curated by Professor Makrand Paranspe and Lalit Varma of Aurodhan Puducherry.
No sooner was the guest list out, people slammed @PondyLitFest’s post on Twitter for including either those are from the BJP or supporters of the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
— Pondy Lit Fest (@PondyLitFest) July 27, 2018
Amish Tripathi, the author of the Shiva trilogy, Aravind Neelakanthan, the co-author of Breaking India, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM, Bibek Debroy, Swarajya editor R Jagannathan, founder of Tapovan Open University of Yoga and Ayurveda, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, national award-winning actor Pallavi Joshi and Dr Sampadananda Mishra, the director of SARC are some of the attendees.
Offering a clarification in a tweet, Paraspe wrote: “Wish to thank everyone for their support and suggestions. The festival is small, with limited resources. Next year we hope to do better with goodwill and additional help.”
He also went on to apologise for not inviting many other scholars and said he would “love to invite” the likes of Pavan K Varma, Shekhar Gupta, Vir Sanghvi, Suhel Seth and Raveena Tandon “if they were willing to come”.
Wish to thank everyone for their support & suggestions. The festival is small, with limited resources. Next year we hope to do better with goodwill & additional help. For instance @TVMohandasPai & @rajeev_mp would make a dream duo for @PondyLitFest 2019! Advance notice given.
— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) July 29, 2018
Sorry for not getting engaged scholar-speakers-writers like @shaktisinha @madhukishwar @heeraman98 @RajeevSrinivasa @prasannara @subhashkak1 @sankrant @Sanjay_Dixit @HindolSengupta @vikramsampath @AdityaRajKaul @rahulpandita & others to @PondyLitFest Next time perhaps?
— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) July 29, 2018
Just for the record, would love to invite the likes of @PavanK_Varma @ShekharGupta @virsanghvi @suhelseth @BDUTT @nramind @TandonRaveena @manujosephsan @UnamPillai @PatrickFrench & yes “even” @sardesairajdeep & @svaradarajan to @PondyLitFest if they are willing to come.
— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) July 29, 2018
Jointly organised by Indologue Events and Ideas and Alliance Francaise, the Pondy Lit Fest will be held at different venues including Maison Colombani, Coramandel Cafe, Alliance Francaise and Aurobindo Society.