Noted writer and poet Ashok Vajpeyi today claimed that liberal democratic spirit is under assault in India, but said its a global phenomena.


"I think the world over the liberal democratic spirit is under assault...it is not merely a phenomena in India, with what's happening in Europe, in Africa and in United States, Latin America," Vajpeyi said addressing the Hyderabad Literary Festival-HLF 2017.


"So, its a growing phenomena where the idea of the liberal itself is now being put into 'question'," said the eminent Hindi poet, who had last year returned his Sahitya Akademi award. Stating that there is violence of every kind including murders, rapes, abductions, physical assaults at social, personal, domestic and academic levels, Vajpeyi said "there is violence against writers, intellectuals. There was violence against writers all along but they were not murdered. And three of them were murdered just because they had their view with which the murderers did not agree."


He further said and there is violence against dissenters, against information seekers, violence against women, against minorities, Christians, Dalits against Adivasis and alleged -- sadly more often than not, the state is watching mutely or is complicit in these acts of violence. Vajpeyi was among the writers who had returned their awards last year to the Sahitya Akademi in protest against the literary body's silence on attack on rationalists such as M M Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.