Rushdie-Nemade spat: Will Vinod Tawde walk the fine line?

The ugly verbal spat between Jnanpith Award winner and Marathi litterateur Bhalchandra Nemade and Salman Rushdie saw an unlikely person - Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde - jump into the battle yesterday. The minister for cultural affairs said that "it is necessary to take action against the tweet" and that the home department was reviewing the matter. The tweet in question had Rushdie calling Nemade a "grumpy old bastard". While most would think that Tawde's intervention, in what was largely a personal attack by two noted writers on each other's works, is unwarranted, the minister's reaction isn't entirely surprising. As the culture minister, he was defending a Marathi writer and reflecting the sentiment of several Marathi speakers in the state. Staying mum would have certainly earned him the ire of a section that views Nemade as a hero.

For Marathi speakers in the state, the Jnanpith Award to Nemade is being viewed as a matter of pride. The writer, known for his stinging views on the English language, is supposedly only the fourth Marathi writer to win the prestigious award. Political parties that run on parochial agenda found resonance in Nemade's opinion that English was responsible for the death of several other regional languages. After the Jnanpith, the Marathi press celebrated the award, dedicated prominent coverage to Nemade, tracking his journey, his views and the relevance of his award winning work. Rushdie's use of "objectionable language" against him was viewed by advocates of the Marathi language as an insult to a writer, who is one among them. Therefore, Tawde's decision to jump into the spat didn't come as a surprise to many. It was what Marathi speakers expected from the government.

Tawde's stand on recent controversies show that the Mumbai politician is struggling to do a balancing act between being the so-called custodian and promoter of Maharashtra's culture and being viewed as a progressive, urban politician. "No moral policing", he tweeted, soon after he pledged an inquiry into the controversial show by the All India Bakchod (AIB). Flooded with complaints by city-based parties and groups, including former Congress MLA Krishna Hegde and members of the Maharashrta Navnirman Sena, Tawde's instant reaction was to promise an inquiry into the content of the event to see if there was anything "vulgar and objectionable". Not willing to be seen as a hardliner who stifles free expression, he instantly softened his stand with a tweet saying that the inquiry would only investigate whether the AIB had obtained the necessary permissions for the show. "Will only enquire if the AIB had taken appropriate certificate. No moral policing if they are allowed by law, I can't stop them," he tweeted.

Those who have followed Tawde on Facebook for the past few years know him to be an admirer of music, dance, sports and culture. Before he took to Twitter to post official ministry-related news, Tawde would regularly use Facebook to commemorate and congratulate musicians, singers, sportspeople and filmmakers, and even long forgotten names. Therefore, Maharashtra can only hope that the minister, while balancing urban and rural sentiments in the state, doesn't turn into the rigid moral police unlike some of his predecessors.