Poet Ashok Vajpeyi Says Won't Participate In Culture Fest Over Censorship, Organisers Deny Claims

Poet Ashok Vajpeyi on Friday said he won't participate in a cultural festival as he was scheduled to because the organizers asked him not to read poems critical of the government. The organizers, however, said that "nobody had asked him to limit his thoughts".Vajpeyi was scheduled to attend a poetry session on Friday at the three-day Arth Culture Fest, organized by Zee, at Sunder Nursery with other poets, including Anamika, Badri Narayan, Dinesh Kushwaha and Manav Kaul. Rekhta Foundation is collaborating with the organizers on the poetry session.

"I won't be taking part in the culture fest organized by Arth and Rekhta because I have been asked to read such poems that do not directly critique politics or the government. This type of censorship is unacceptable," Vajpeyi wrote in Hindi on Facebook. Vajpeyi told PTI later that he had planned to read seven "chorus", a literary device first associated with Greek theatre in which performers comment on the situation unfolding in a drama."A person had contacted me from Rekhta and asked if I would be reading any poems with political connotations. I told them how can poetry be apolitical so they asked me to refrain from it," the 82-year-old poet said.

"I do not stand for this type of censorship, that is why I will not be joining," he added. Meanwhile, an Arth festival spokesperson said that Vajpeyi is welcome to share his thoughts and that the event is hosting speakers including those who have been "actively speaking against the establishment"."Neither the festival directors nor the organizers have asked him to limit any of his thoughts. We appreciate the varied perspectives and views and welcome speakers from all sections of society to participate. This year's edition is hosting some of the finest speakers, who are contributing their powerful thoughts, including the ones who have been actively speaking against the establishment," they said.

They added that the festival provides "a neutral stage for speakers and does not play any role in limiting their freedom to speak". "We look forward to hosting Shri. Vajpeyi Ji at the festival, to add value to the conversations," the spokesperson said. A Rekhta Foundation spokesperson also denied Vajpeyi’s claim and said neither Rekhta nor the organizers at Zee had made such demands from any of the poets in the session."We did ask everyone about what they were planning to recite at the session, but that was just so we could add it to their introduction to the program. We or Zee never told them to not read anything political. If it were true, we would have asked the same from everyone else," Satish Gupta, head of communications at Rekhta Foundation, told PTI.

Gupta also clarified that Rekhta Foundation is only organizing the poetry session in collaboration and not the entire cultural festival, which begins on Friday. The culture festival claims to celebrate Indian culture, heritage, history, literature, music, dance, and art by bringing together a diverse group of writers, actors, scholars, and performers. Vajpeyi, who was chairperson of Lalit Kala Akademi from 2008-2011, was among those who returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards in 2015 to protest the “assault on the right to freedom of both life and expression”.