Nitin Yeshwantrao

Thane, Dec 26 (TOI): The inaugural session of the 84th Marathi Sahitya Sammelan on Saturday erupted in a political and "caste" furore over the reference of Nathuram Godse, who was described as a person "who had immense respect for Gandhi" , in a literary souvenir. The literary piece, incidentally published by the organizers of the festival, went on to describe the Mahatma's assassin, as a "hard-line Hindutvavadi and an ardent devotee of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar" .

Godse's mention kicked up a storm at the Dadoji Kondeo Stadium as Left-inclined writers and other politicians seized the opportunity to lash out at the organsing committee, presided over by senior journalist and writer Uttam Kamble.

NCP leader Jitendra Awhad and leader of the opposition in Thane Municipal Corporaion Najeeb Mulla trooped to the venue, alleging that Godse's mention in the souvenir was a plot by a "handful of elements" to embarrass Kamble, who belonged to the Dalit community. The episode triggered a bitter caste war as Awahd lashed out at the "Brahmin-dominated" organising committee and burnt copies of the book. NCP members demanded an unconditional apology from the committee and demanded that the souvenir be withdrawn immediately . The dispute was finally resolved after Kamble expressed regret over Godse's reference and assured withdrawal of all copies.

In another development, the literary circles also slammed the organising committee for leaving out scholar and writer-editor Ram Patwardhan from the three-day festival. "Patwardhan Sir edited the famous Marathi literary magazine, Mauj and Satyakatha. But the organizers did not bother to send an invitation to him,'' a writer-poet told TOI.