Decision to quit council final: Karnad

Decision to quit council final: Karnad
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, AUG 17
Celebrated playwright Girish Karnad today stated that his decision not to be part of the Golden Jubilee council is final and irrevocable.
In a terse letter to Chief Minister Digamabar Kamat, Karnad had written that he was withdrawing from the Golden Jubilee Development Council (GJDC) because of the inability of the State administration to stop Hindu vigilante groups from pressuring a Christian artist to stop his exhibition of Hindu gods last month.
However, sources in the government told Herald today that the State will not accept Karnad’s resignation and they are hopeful to solve the issue with celebrated playwright.
Speaking to reporters here Karnad ruled out any such possibility.
“My decision not to be part of the high level committee is final and irrevocable,” he said.
Karnad’s questioned the need of a golden council when artists are being ill-treated.
“There can be controversy on the issue but how can the exhibition of an artist be stopped?” he asked.
In his letter Karnad had stated,  ‘I should like to withdraw my name from the high level committee which you were kind enough to invite me to serve on since this is not the culture of liberation I had hoped to celebrate,’ the Padma Bhushan awardee said in his letter.
Karnad, a Jnanpith award winner, was referring to artist Jose Pereira’s exhibition on Hindu deities Shiva and Krishna, which right wing organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) members claimed denigrated the deities.