The Goa Police on Tuesday filed a First Information Report against a former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and a publisher for using allegedly vulgar language in his compilation of Konkani poems, reported The Hindu.
Superintendent of Police (South Goa) Arvind Gawas said Vishnu Surya Wagh and Hema Naik of Apurbai Prakashan were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
Wagh’s Sudhirsukt, which was published in 2013, sparked fresh outrage among Goa’s elite castes after his supporters tried to get the book selected for the annual poetry award by the government-funded Goa Konkani Academy. The poet, dramatist, former newspaper editor and cartoonist is considered the foremost political and cultural orator and ideologue of Goa’s largest Hindu community, the Bhandaris, who are categorised under Other Backward Castes.
Apart from the language, the overt anti-Brahminism of Wagh’s poetry is another bone of contention.
Women’s rights activist Auda Viegas had lodged the complaint against Wagh on September 4, alleging that the book contained obscene and derogatory comments about women. “Not only does it portray women in bad taste, the book also speaks about castes, which is wrong,” she told PTI.
Wagh, who is recuperating from a heart attack in May 2016 did not comment, publisher Naik said she was unaware of the FIR filed against her. “We will have to fight it,” she told IANS. “But as of now, I have not been informed about the FIR.”
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