“I can see intolerance everywhere. It’s clearly visible. Some people are indulged in cultural cleansing and the government has remained a mute spectator,” she said. She slammed the PM over Dadri lynching, saying it’s highly deplorable that the PM spoke on the issue after 9 days.
Sarah Joseph had received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2003 just a year after the 2002 Gujarat riots, but she did not protest then. She had joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2014 and contested the Lok Sabha polls from Thrissur, but lost her deposits. She had polled 44,638 votes – 4.48% of the total votes.
Earlier, Shashi Deshpande & Poet Satchidanandan too resigned from all positions at Sahitya Akademi, protesting against the “communal unrest” and “growing intolerance” in the country. “silence is a form of abettment,” said Shashi Deshpande, taking a dig at PM Modi.