Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad had their dialogue cancelled hours before by Tata Lit Fest, it’s been reported. Anil Dharker, Tata Lit Fest founder, is quoted as saying that the duo were going to use the platform to push their agenda.
In a statement, Dharker said Tata Lit Fest owed its success to free expression of ideas, not a free expression of someone’s specific agenda.
Dharker added that he came to know that Chomsky and Prashad were planning to use the session to make a statement about corporations such as Tatas which was never the intended purpose of the session.
He further said that the cancellation of the session is a considered decision he took in his capacity as Festival Director.
Taking to Twitter, Prashad said: “Interestingly, just hours before this session between Chomsky and myself, @tatalitlive cancelled our appearance ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’. More on this to come (sic),” he tweeted.
The two were also planning to talk about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
In the joint statement, they said that the issue of the erosion of democracy is a serious matter and called termed Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, Japan, and the United States as “highly destabilizing.”
The ongoing Tata Lit Fest is concluding on Sunday.
Interestingly, a social media storm has broken out over Indian consulate in Canada inviting Devdutt Pattanaik and William Dalrymple, a mythologist of questionable scholarship, not to mention his abusive rant, and the other a “historian” who gagged a fact-finding book on Delhi riots a few months ago.
The two are due to visit Toronto for their talk between November 27 and 29.
The din has grown to cancel this event too.
