Kancha Illaiah controversy: Owaisi asks Telangana govt to provide security to writer

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president, Asaduddin Owaisi, on Monday requested the Telangana government to provide security to writer Kancha Ilaiah, and said that those who speak against the BJP and RSS were facing threats.

Kancha, a Dalit rights thinker, sought police protection on Monday saying that he was facing threat to his life even as Arya Vysya organisations staged protests in parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh seeking a ban on his book.

The writer lodged a complaint with Osmania University Police Station, stating that he had been receiving threatening phone calls since Sunday.

He claimed that he started receiving calls after some leaders of Arya Vysya organisations, while talking to TV channels, condemned him. He sought immediate police protection.

Supporting his demand, Owaisi told reporters in Hyderabad, “With authenticity I am saying that there is indeed a threat to Kancha Ilaiah. There is in fact a threat to all those who speak and write against the BJP and RSS. Kancha Ilaiah is an important intellect of this age. His contributions to the Dalit community and Ambedkaries is huge.”

Owaisi also voiced concern over increasing attacks on journalists, referring to the recent murder of Bengaluru-based Gauri Lankesh.

“After Gauri Lankesh's murder, the man who is followed by the Prime Minister (on Twitter) has said nasty things. These people cannot put their points across in an intellectual debate, this is why the beast in them manifests in their tweets or statements,” a ToI report quotes Owaisi as saying.

Meanwhile, various organisations of Arya Vysya community staged protests in different parts of the two Telugu states demanding action against Ilaiah for insulting the community in his book "Samajika Smugglurlu Komatollu (Vysyas are social smugglers)".

The protestors burnt effigies of the writer and lodged police complaints against him. They demanded immediate ban on the book saying its contents are derogatory and demeaning to their community.

Ilaiah, however, said it was not a book but a chapter from his English book "Post Hindu India" published in 2009. He said a publisher got the chapter translated into Telugu and published it as a booklet.

Stating that it was a research book on various communities, Ilaiah denied that he used any derogatory word.

"Social Smuggling is a phrase. It is the economic process of exploitation, which means earning in business but not investing back into society," he told reporters.

The professor said if anybody had any objection with regard to any contents of the book, he could approach the court.

Meanwhile, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, who belongs to the Vysya community, said it was not proper on the part of anybody to hurt the sentiments of any community.

The former Tamil Nadu Governor said writers should avoid using any derogatory terms against any community.

IANS inputs