Sahitya Akademi awardee summoned by police for criticising Narendra Modi government

Bengaluru: Karanataka Sahitya Akademi award winner, Hampa Nagarajaiah (86) was summoned by the Mandya police over his criticism of the BJP government. The complaint was filed by the BJP activists who were outraged by the poet's remark of comparing the Union government with Duryodhana of Mahabharata.

While the literary circles are outraged with the police action, the Congress has called the incident a subversion of democractic freedom.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K Shivakumar has demanded that the government apologise to the celebrated poet.

"He gave a voice to the farmers of the nation and it was not a political voice. Nagarajaiah is a great poet and he just pointed out the situation of the country. Just on the basis of the complaint by the BJP he was called to the police station for questioning. This was done to curb the voice of the critics of the government. The Congress stands by the poet and I demand that the CM should apologise to Nagarajaiah," Shivakumar said.

However, the complainants did not provide any proof of the 'offensive' statements.

The Mandya police stated that Nagarajaiah was sent home after his statement was recorded.