ABOUT SEHGAL

Noted writer, who vociferously opposed Emergency, says her decision was prompted by the killings of Kalburgi, Dhabolkar and Pansare, and Dadri lynching.Noted writer and Jawaharlal Nehru’s niece Nayantara Sehgal has returned her Sahitya Akademi award in protest of growing intolerance, particularly highlighted by the Dadri lynching. Shehgal received the award in 1986 for her novel Rich Like Us.In a statement on Monday, the 88-year-old said that her decision to give back the award was triggered by recent murders of rationalists M M Kalburgi, Narendra Dhabolkar and Govind Pansare, and the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq over rumours of beef consumption.Sehgal, who had vociferously opposed the Emergency imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, told Mirror from her Dehradun home:“No one is better off under any dictatorship, it is equally evil. I will make one distinction between Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. She was a democrat gone wrong, while Modi is a fascist.”Sehgal has authored 18 books including two on Indira Gandhi. Clarifying that her opposition was not against any party, she said that the previous NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more humane.“There is no question of comparison between the Vajpayee government and the Modi government. Vajpayee was a great human being in many ways.”The writer, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru's sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, said that it is the ‘very worst times’ that we are living in. “Every government makes mistakes, but no government till date has been fascist enough to suppress all forms of dissent,” she said.Speaking about the recent efforts by the Culture Ministry to renovate the Nehru Museum and Memorial Library allegedly to undermine Nehru’s primacy, Sehgal said it was part of the fascist agenda. “They hate Nehru to no end. In fact, they have psychopathic fear towards him because of the position he occupies in the hearts of Indians.”In her statement to the media, Sehgal said that Vice President Dr Hamid Ansari had to remind in a recent lecture that our Constitution promises liberty of thought, expression and belief, faith and worship because India’s culture of diversity and debate is now under vicious assault.“Rationalists who question superstition, anyone who questions any aspect of the ugly and dangerous distortion of Hinduism known as Hindutva- whether in the intellectual or artistic sphere or whether in terms of food habits and lifestyle are being marginalized, persecuted or murdered,” reads the statement released on Monday.Sehgal has also commented on Modi’s silence on the Dadri incident. “We must assume he dare not alienate evil doers who support his ideology,” she said.She joins the list of litterateurs, including Hindi writer Uday Prakash who returned his award over Kalburgi’s murder and six young Kannada writers who recently gave back their awards to Kannada Sahitya Parishat.Was born in 1927 in AllahabadSecond of the three daughters born to Nehru's sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.Studied in Woodstock school near Dehradun; graduated from Wellesley College in the USFirst woman Indian writer in English to receive wide recognitionHas authored 18 books, including two on Indira GandhiWon Sahitya Akademi award in 1986 for Rich Like Us