KARL Marx said of his fellow Germans in Modern Europe: “Perseus wore a magic cap so that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over our eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.” In Modi's India, the monsters and their tools for destroying free speech and expression are well-known. Here in Tamil Nadu, the monsters hunted down an eminent writer. The Left forces, the CPI (M), the CPI and Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association (TPWAA) protested against this attack. Now the voice, which was first raised by the CPI (M) and the TPWAA, against the Hindutva forces who had forced Tamil novelist Perumal Murugan to give up his writing, is echoing through the length and breadth of the country from 'The Hindu Lit Fest' to 'ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival' and 'Kochi-Muziris Biennale'. ‘A DEADLY COCKTAIL’ "Perumal Murugan had been called upon by the district administration to attend the peace talks to be held on January 12, 2015. Perumal Murugan came to my house on 12th morning and we both travelled in my car to Namakkal... When we reached the toll gate at around 5 p.m., we were accosted by a police officer. He instructed us to follow the escort vehicle. We were strictly told that we should enter the Collectorate only through a certain route. On reaching the Collectorate through the back entry, we were taken to the room of the assistant to the district revenue officer, Namakkal. When we were so taken, Perumal Murugan was throughout surrounded by a group of police constables", narrates G R Swaminathan, the lawyer who accompanied writer Perumal Murugan to the so-called 'peace talks'. "During the journey when I told Perumal Murugan that the police are frightening him, he confided that he was made to leave Namakkal only because the police suggested him to exile himself. In the Collectorate, we were kept confined. The DRO who presided over the 'peace talks' did not arrange a face-to-face meeting with the protestors. She met the protestors separately. Since Perumal Murugan was anxious to close the issue and had already issued two statements, I summarised them in my own hand writing and asked Perumal Murugan to sign the same. I had used the expression “sincere regret”. But the DRO felt that this will not be acceptable to the other side and wanted me to change it as “unconditional apology”. I could not stomach it. I could see that Perumal Murugan was in real agony. I therefore told him to call up his wife and take a decision. His wife Ezhil finally said “alright, if that is what they want, put it in writing”. She anxiously enquired if it would not break his spirit", Swaminathan detailed. "We trooped back into DRO’s room. “Sincere regret” became “unconditional apology”. I thought with that everything would be over. Not yet. The DRO asked us to wait in the other chamber. Some fifteen minutes later we were once again summoned. She produced a copy of the statement earlier issued by Perumal Murugan offering to change the name of the place and delete the offending portions in the next edition and to take back the unsold copies. I pointed out that that was given under compulsion in the face of hartal threat earlier. Since the said statement had been ignored and a hartal was held, there was no point in relying on it. But the police and the district administration insisted that we incorporate those portions also. I could see that Perumal Murugan was literally crumbling within. He literally was on the edge of frustration. He said “write anything, do anything, I accept”. I tried to pacify him but it was of no avail." “During the talks, I became a little emotional and requested the DRO to see from the point of writer’s freedom. She raised her voice and told me that I as an advocate could say anything and walk away. Perumal Murugan has to stay in Namakkal. When I told her not to raise her voice, she told me to leave the place if I wanted. The police did not support Perumal Murugan even a wee bit. The district administration totally let him down. According to them, it was a pure law and order issue. Literary freedom and Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution were remote concerns, the lawyer described.” He added: "I dropped Perumal Murugan in his house and returned to Madurai. My heart was heavy. Perumal Murugan was clearly uncomfortable being away from his soil. The “exile” was actually draining his spirits. That the exile itself was engineered by the police, made things even worse. The district administration was not willing to stand up by him. True there was a big support for Perumal Murugan in the media. But the field reality was different. The man and his wife are both employed in Namakkal. They have their roots in Thiruchengode. They just couldn’t stand the thought and reality that the entire town could go against them. The hartal was total and complete. In such circumstances, we had virtually no options. Perumal Murugan did not have the inner wherewithal to brave things out. MF Hussain can travel all over the world. But even he had to exile himself from the place of contention. But Perumal Murugan could not do so. He has to be in Namakkal unless he and his wife are favoured with an order of administrative transfer to Chennai. “I was told that the entire campaign against Perumal Murugan has been engineered by certain Hindu outfits. Caste and religion make a deadly cocktail. Only a strong administration could have dealt with them. It did not. On the other hand, Perumal Murugan was simply thrown to the wolves". Immediately on knowing the unconstitutional attitude of the Namakkal district administration, G Ramakrishnan, state secretary of the CPI(M) vehemently condemned that these types of 'peace talks' are like 'khap panchayats'. He demanded the government of Tamil Nadu to intervene to save the writer as well as the freedom of expression. TPWAA also condemned and vowed to take forward the struggle against the Hindutva forces, who forced the writer to'exile'. ‘THE WRITER IS DEAD’ On that night, Professor Perumal Murugan posted on his Facebook account, "Author Perumal Murugan has died. He is no god, so he is not going to resurrect himself. Nor does he believe in reincarnation. From now on, Perumal Murugan will survive merely as the teacher he has been." The words shook the conscience of the entire writing community. But the major Dravidian parties including the DMK and the AIADMK did not support him, nor even condemn the happenings. However, the support for Perumal Murugan increased over the days. Analysing the reality, after two days, M K Stalin, treasurer of the DMK announced his support for the writer. But other parties were tight-lipped and this has exposed their nature before the people as well as the intellectual community. On January 17, The Hindu Lit for Life 2015 has expressed solidarity with the writer and novelist Perumal Murugan and condemned the attempt to silence him. “We, the community of concerned citizens – writers, readers, publishers, journalists, and cultural practitioners – assembled at The Hindu’s literary festival, Lit for Life 2015, in Chennai condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the attempt to silence the brilliant Tamil writer Perumal Murugan and stand in full solidarity with him,” a resolution adopted at the festival said. In Rajasthan, at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, a full session was dedicated in support of the silenced Tamil writer. The participants blamed the centre for allowing “fringe elements” to define the thin line that divides the right to expression enshrined in the Constitution from the non-absoluteness of this right. Karthika VK, publisher and chief editor of Harper-Collins Publishers India, said she was told that the controversy was engineered by the BJP. She was speaking at a session on ‘Is the commerce of literature today killing good writing?’ Perumal Murugan’s book Madhorubagan came out in 2010, but the controversy was raked up now because the law did not protect writers, she said. Suggesting that writers should stop bothering about “hurting the sentiments” of others, novelist Nayantara Sahgal said it was time to exercise the freedom of expression and speech as guaranteed in the Constitution. Tamil writer and independent researcher CS Lakshmi (Ambai) said more important than commercialisation of writing was whether “we would be able to write at all or not” after the Perumal Murgan episode, and whether any publisher would risk publishing books. She said Perumal Murugan was married to a dalit woman, and his community wanted to ex-communicate him but could not do so under this pretext. In Kerala, eminent writers, film makers, musicians and political activists came together under the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014 umbrella to express their solidarity for Tamil writer Perumal Murugan through a mass reading of a portion of his withdrawn book Madhorubagan. At the event, CPI (M) leader and writer Simon Britto said, "In today's world, and in a sovereign, secular India, a writer has his neck on the line and his assassin is waiting at the tip of his pen". An online petition to show solidarity with Perumal Murugan, has received an overwhelming response from netizens across the country. The petition has received more than 1,500 signatures, a few days after it was launched. Meanwhile, there is a mass downloading and mass reading of the novel Madhorubagan as a form of protest against the Hindutva forces. In this background, the Karuthurimai Padhukappu Kootamaippu, Tamil Nadu Kalai Ilakiya Perumandram and the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association jointly organised a huge protest and launched of a signature campaign in support of Perumal Murugan at Chennai on January 20. “Perumal Murugan should return and pen more enlightening pieces with strong social themes for the generation next,” was the united call from those who gathered at the protest. Scholars, senior journalists, free thinkers and political leaders voiced their support for the writer and lashed out at Namakkal police and local revenue officials alleging ill treatment of the author and termed it as a cowardice act suppressing the freedom of expression. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers’ Association has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Madras High Court, seeking to declare as null and void the peace meeting held at Namakkal Collectorate, after which writer Perumal Murugan renounced writing. The PIL was filed by president of TPWAA and writer S Tamilselvan.