Karnataka government failed to pay respect to Sara Aboobacker: Writers

MANGALURU: Writers, social activists and rationalists condemned the “neglect” on part of the state government, district administration and elected representatives, for not according due respect to eminent Kannada writer Sara Aboobacker, on her death on Tuesday.
In a joint release, writers BM Rohini, Chandrakala Nandavara, and IK Boluvar, as well as rationalist Narendra Nayak, Prof Pattabhirama Somayaji, activists TR Bhat, M Devadas, BM Haneef, Vasudeva Uchila, Dr B Srinivas Kakkilaya, Gulabi Bilimale, Prof K Rajendra Udupa, Prof Chandra Poojari, Mohan PV, Yashavanth Maroli, Muneer Katipalla and Krishnappa Konchadi, stated that the government and people’s representatives have exhibited intolerance by not offering due respect to Sara Aboobacker.
“The eminence of Sara Aboobacker is not just limited to her being a novelist and writer. At a time when Muslims were not active in the Kannada literary world, Sara Aboobacker made her presence felt. She made the inequalities in society and grievances of Muslim women, a subject for her stories. It was not a small achievement, and she had to face stiff opposition for exposing the truth. She made her mark in social activism, by engaging in the fight for women, along with writing,” stated the release.
“The stories, novels and other literary works of Sara Aboobacker not only made the Kannada literary world richer, but also spread the language’s richness to the world. Further, she has received several prestigious honours for her achievements,” they noted.
“A writer of such a stature should have been given due respect by the government. However, no honours were accorded to the writer, when she died. Moreover, none of the people’s representatives and officials from the district administration paid their last respect to her. Though the district minister and MLAs were in the city, they did not visit, to pay their last respect. This has pained all of us. This ignorance seems to be an intolerance and communal perspective of the government, towards secular ideologies, writers and thinkers. This stand of the government, district administration and people’s representatives, is indeed traumatic,” they noted.