BENGALURU: Puns and metaphors made way for a blistering attack by historian Ramachandra Guha at the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) on Saturday. The noted writer described the Modi government as "the most anti-intellectual and philistine" that India has ever had.

In a lecture on 'Eight Threats to Freedom of Expression', he said anti-intellectualism is manifest in the appointments made by the Modi government.

"Directors of IITs tell me that Smriti Irani (HRD minister) makes them nostalgic for Murli Manohar Joshi," said Guha. Joshi, who was HRD minister in the Vajpayee government, was alleged to have interfered in the functioning of higher education institutions - a charge made against Irani as well.

"As for Mahesh Sharma, in charge of culture, who could be more grossly anti-intellectual and philistine than him?"

The other appointments Guha held up for scrutiny included Y Sudershan Rao as head of the Indian Council for Historical Research (he has since resigned), Pahlaj Nihalani as chairman of the Censor Board and Gajendra Chauhan to the Film and Television Institute of India.

"The man who was chairman of ICHR has never published a scholarly paper in his life, and considers the Mahabharata and Ramayana real texts. Nihalani was brought in for composing ads in praise of Narendra Modi," he observed. The appointments show, he said, the government's contempt for scholarship, literature and the arts. "The PM doesn't believe intellectuals and artistes contribute."

"Bigots and chamchas are the people this government appoints to important cultural and academic posts," said Guha. The Congress was no better. It also appointed cronies to important positions and never supported freedom of expression. But now, the situation seems to have worsened as writers and artists are being targeted.

India has never had a golden age for freedom of expression, but "my view is that the position today is indeed worse. In the past, writers had their books banned, filmmakers had their films censored, artists had their paintings vandalized. Now, they are being physically eliminated", said Guha, referring to the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.

These activist-writers were most likely murdered by Hindu fundamentalists for holding a critical view of Hindu traditions, he said. "It makes India a tragic mirror of Bangladesh." The murders seem to indicate that writers in English are less threatened than writers in Indian languages.

Nearly 10 years ago, Guha said, he wrote that India was a 50:50 democracy. "A decade later, we seem to be a 40:60 democracy."