Former BJP MLA's poems take potshots at Goa's caste-elite, stir controversy

Vishnu Wagh, a prolific, award-winning writer and poet, is currently recuperating following a massive heart attack which he suffered last year, but his book, published by Goa-based Apurbai Prakashan in 2013, has struck controversy now after it was finalised for a state award.

Poet Sanjeev Verenkar, a jury member, objected to the book being finalised for the Goa Konkani Academy award and argued that the government shouldn't endorse literature which is laced with vulgarity, slams a particular caste and is derisive of women.

Justifying his decision to leak the decision of the three-member jury, comprising Nilba Khandekar, Sonali Chodankar and himself, before a formal announcement, Verenkar said that while poets and writers had the freedom to write and even incorporate "vulgar" language in their text, the government should not endorse such writing with state awards.

"I agree, leaking the result (declaring Wagh the winner) is unethical, but my intention was the greater good. The poems are critical of a particular community and have potential to stoke communal tension. Poets are free to write what they want and there should be no compulsion on it, but a government agency shouldn't endorse such vulgar, reckless writing," Verenkar told IANS.

Wagh has been critical of the caste-oriented social order and right-wing politics. His literature has often reflected this contour of thought.

In "Sudhir Sukta", for example, a poem, "Farak" (Difference) expresses angst against Goa's caste elite, the GSBs.

Sample this: They eat fish/We eat fish too/They drink alcohol/We drink it too/They f... women/We f... them too/They bathe/We bathe too/But after bathing/They emerge pure/But we continue to be impure/Or else, how could they/Walk into the sanctum sanatorium and touch God?/And we/Can only catch a mere glimpse from the outside/Before getting edged away/There is a difference between them and us.

The consistent refusal by managements of popular Goan temples to allow non-Brahmins into the sanctum sanctorum, has often triggered outbursts against the GSB community, which, though small numerically, occupies key positions in state politics, administration, business, literature and academia.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a GSB himself, had released "Sudhir Sukta" in 2013, a book which Verenkar says lacks context, apart from being "vulgar".

"It abuses women and Saraswat Brahmins. In literature, even if you use vulgarity, it has to be relevant to the context," Verenkar maintained.

Another poem in the 152-page book, which Verenkar objects to, is "Sanddh" (Opportunity), a sexually-explicit conversation between a low-caste man and his upper-caste female lover.

The book's publisher, Hema Naik, a Sahitya Akademi award-winning author herself, maintained that freedom of speech allows writers and poets to express their angst and feelings.

She denied that "Sudhir Sukta" derides a specific caste but also underlined that exploitation of lower castes by upper castes over the centuries is a fact.

"It is his personal opinion. He has the freedom to write what he wants. There is no basis to the allegation that the book targets a specific caste. But isn't it a fact that upper castes have exploited those below them over generations?" asked Naik, whose Apurbai Prakashan has published more than 100 titles over the past over three decades.

While Goa Konkani Academy president Prakash Vazrikar maintained that the winner's name is still in "sealed cover", the controversy has attracted the ire of the GSB community's intelligensia.

"If awards are given to something that is a threat to society, then that would directly mean encouragement to it, and nothing else," well-known writer Uday Bhembre said after the controversy erupted.

But others like Kaustubh Naik, Wagh's nephew and a research scholar at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, beg to differ.

Strongly condemning the vilification of Wagh, Naik said the poems mirror the narrative of late Namdeo Dhasal, a radical Dalit poet and Padma Shri winner from Maharashtra.

"Award or no award, it does not change Wagh's stature as one of the most influential modern poets from Goa. The poems' texture resembles the poetry of Dhasal and it entirely rejects the Brahminical sense of aesthetics and profanity," Naik claimed.