Sahitya Akademi asked to condemn death threats against Damodar Mauzo

Panaji : Top writers and poets on Wednesday expressed concern about the threat to Goa's award winning writer Damodar Mauzo in a letter to the Sahitya Akdemi, the country's national academy of letters.

Mauzo has been provided police security, following threat to his life by the alleged killers of Bengaluru-based journalist Gauri Lankesh.

"We expect the Akademi to condemn this crude assault by lumpen elements against the person and dignity of writers, thinkers and artists and their families. The Akademi needs to extend all possible support to Damodar Mauzo, S. Hareesh, and all writers being victimised in the name of religion, ideology or under any other pretext," said the letter signed by litterateurs Keki Daruwalla, Nayantara Sahgal, Githa Hariharan, K. Satchidanandan, Shashi Deshpande, Manohar Shetty, among others to the Akademi's president Chandrasekhara Kambara.

The letter states, that the writer community was feeling considerable anxiety and dismay about the spate of death threats and trolling of writers, including the Goa-based Mauzo.

"It is inconceivable that a gentle, soft spoken man like Prof. Mauzo should earn the ire of anyone, leave alone the vicious lobby which is trolling him," the letter states.

Asking the Akademi to take a "brave stand", the letter has requested Kambara to "condemn this crude assault by lumpen elements against the person and dignity of writers, thinkers and artists and their families".

"The Akademi needs to extend all possible support to Damodar Mauzo, S. Hareesh (short story writer from Kerala), and all writers being victimised in the name of religion, ideology or under any other pretext," the letter also states.