Guest post by MRIDU RAI

Rahul Pandita has written a misleading piece—in the tone of high dudgeon and ethical outrage no less—in the ‘essays’ section of the 3 September 2011 issue of Open magazine titled “The Autumn of Hypocrisy”. I think it is a piece that, nevertheless, requires some examination mostly because it makes several assertions in ways that queer any possibility of debate around the important question of what a literary festival held in Kashmir today might mean. Whether or not it was the author’s intention to do so, its effect is also to discredit, off-hand, several literary and artistic voices whose greatest sin would appear to be to have disagreed with the kind of literary festival in Kashmir Rahul Pandita and his fellow organizers had in mind. Of course, it is also troubling to hear from Mr. Pandita on this question since he is both an aggrieved party, deprived of his right to express himself at the festival, and also, as the credit at the bottom of his piece elaborates, a former “member of the advisory committee for the Harud literary festival”. I wonder if this conflict of interest bothers anyone other than me. Continue reading Hypocrisy in Any Season: Mridu Rai responds to Rahul Pandita on the Harud Literature Festival →