NEW DELHI: Top prize winners Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk and J.M. Coetzeeled more than 250 literary and journalist luminaries who called Thursday onIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke an order stripping writerAatish Taseer of his “overseas citizenship”.
Leading Indian writer Amitav Ghosh also signed the letter which said Taseer”appears to have been targeted for an extremely personal form ofretaliation” for his criticism of the Indian government.
Taseer, 38, born in Britain but raised in India, lost his OverseasCitizenship of India last week. The home ministry announced on Twitter thatthe journalist had “concealed” the fact that his father was Pakistani.
Critics have, however, called the move a response to a Taseer cover storyon Modi in Time magazine during the Indian election titled “India’s Dividerin Chief”.
“Denying access to the country to writers of both foreign and Indian origincasts a chill on public discourse,” said the letter, published by the freespeech platform PEN America.
*RELATED: India revokes citizenship of author Aatish Taseer who called Modi’Divider In Chief’link*
“It flies in the face of India’s traditions of free and open debate andrespect for a diversity of views, and weakens its credentials as a strongand thriving democracy.”
Read Top Stories
Taseer was raised in India by his mother, Tavleen Singh, an Indiancolumnist and journalist. His father, Salman Taseer, was governor ofPakistan’s Punjab province until he was assassinated in 2011.
The letter said the decision by the Indian government was discriminationagainst single mothers.
Taseer said he learned about the decision on Twitter. He later wrote: “Itwas not hard to feel, given the timing, that I was being punished for whatI had written.”
Time has also condemned the move. “Journalists like Aatish Taseer should beallowed to do their work without harassment or retribution,” a spokespersontold AFP.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Taseer’s fate showed thatModi’s conservative ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is “intolerant ofcriticism and freedom of the press”. -APP/AFP
