Stricken by illness and unable to talk, former BJP MlA Vishnu Wagh and a woman publisher of his collection of poems have been booked for using vulgar language in his controversial book Sudhir Sukta, which is being pegged as a poetic critique of the influential Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community in the coastal State.
The First Information Report was filed by women's activist Auda Viegas at the Ponda police station in South Goa, who in her complaint has claimed that the language in the poems was objectionable and derogatory towards women.
"An FIR has been registered and we are beginning our investigation now," South Goa Superintendent of Police Arvind Gawas told The Pioneer.
Police sources said that the objectionable portions of the book will be vetted by the officials of the Official language department of the Goa Government, before summoning the publisher and the writer of the book for further probe.
The controversial book, which was incidentally released at the hands of Manohar Parrikar, during his earlier stint as Chief Minister in 2013, is critical of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community, which is influential in the sphere of business, administration as well as politics in the State. One of the poems, while obliquely referring to the GSB community reads:
They eat fish
We eat fish too
They drink alcohol
We drink it too
They f... women
We f... them too
They bathe
We bathe too
But after bathing
They emerge pure
But we continue to be impure, Or else, how could they walk into the sanctum sanatorium and touch GodIJ
And we can only catch a mere glimpse from the outside
Before getting edged away
There is a difference between them and us.
The book did not stir controversy after it was released in 2013, but the controversy started after 'Sudhir Sukta' was shortlisted for an annual literary award by the State-funded Goa Konkani Academy this year.
The selection was objected to by one of the jury members, tasked with short-listing books for the award, who claimed that the contents in the book were inflammatory and unfairly critical of the GSB community and derogatory to women.
The awards where however scrapped by the state government last week, ostensibly because of "irregularities" in the award shortlisting process.
Speaking to The Pioneer, publisher of the book Hema Naik said, that she was unaware of the FIR being registered against her.
"We will have to fight it out. This is an unnecessary crack down on the freedom of expression," Naik said.
Wagh, an award-winning writer, who has written more than two dozen books, plays and poetry collections, has been laid-up and unable to speak, since he suffered his second heart attack a few months back.