NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand BJP leader and Chairman of National Monuments Authority, Tarun Vijay will inaugurate the prestigious Marathi Literature festival on Social Harmony in Nagpur, Maharashtra on July 2.
This is the 19th edition of the literature festival which involves Dalit authors and non-Dalit creative writers whose writings are focused on promoting social harmony.
Vijay, a Dalit activist and former Rajya Sabha MP, is the first leader post-independence who demanded and campaigned for Vadodara’s Sankalp Bhumi to be declared as India’s first Dalit national monument.
Sankalp Bhumi is the place where Constitution architect Dr BR Ambedkar took resolve (sankalp) to eradicate caste-based discriminations and usher into an era of social harmony.
In 2016, he became a national figure when he led a campaign for Dalits’ entry into temples of Uttarakhand. Then a BJP MP, Vijay was attacked by a mob of around 2000 people when he was visiting Silgur Devta temple in Chakrata. He was admitted to the AIIMS for a month with severe head injury.
Reacting to the invitation to inaugurate the literature festival Vijay said, “It is a rare honour that a person from Uttarakhand Himalaya is being invited to inaugurate a Marathi literature festival on social harmony and equality.”