Modi a threat to Indian civilisation: U R Ananthamurthy

He was always opposed to the idea of Narendra Modi as the prime minister and today he has out in the open once again to speak about it.

Renowned Kannada writer and Jnanpith Award winner U R Ananthamurthy, who had said that he would leave India if Modi became the prime minister, is now part of an organisation called the Samekaleena Vichara Vedike to oppose the Gujarat chief minister’s ascent to New Delhi.

In this brief interaction on Friday, Ananthamurthy said that Modi represents “a corruption of the mind”. He, however, was quick to add that the Congress represents “corruption of a literal kind”.

“Narendra Modi has all the demeanours of a dictator and today, thanks to him, there are no moderate voices in the BJP,” the writer and critic said.

He was referring to the recent incident of sidelining of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who was expelled from the party as he wanted to contest from Rajasthan’s Barmer against the party’s wishes. The former Union minister is contesting from the same seat as an independent now.

“The rise of Modi has put an end to all the moderate voices within the BJP. What one gets to see is not the real picture. He speaks about development, but according to me, it is all lies. He has an army on the cyber space which puts forth these lies for him. In reality there is a threat to Indian civilisation in the rise of Modi and hence we writers have come together to oppose it,” Ananthamurthy said.

“There are doubts about the development model that he speaks about and it is perceived that he helps just one class of society. The campaign by his cyber army is spreading false messages. There are photographs that are shared of him with Muslims, and trust me these people go and meet him only due to insecurity and nothing else,” he added.

At an event recently, Ananthmurthy had earned the wrath of the BJP and its supporters for his comments on Modi. He had said that he does not wish to live in an India which is ruled by Narendra Modi. He had also further called him a bully and said that Modi cannot reflect the ancient India and also cannot build a modern India.

“I will have no belongingness to an India represented by Modi,” he had earlier said.

Image: U R Ananthamurthy and Narendra Modi