FROM: Ramrao Surya Wagh HNo 5573, Vodle Bhat, Dongri Mandur Goa 403104 GOA [email protected] 94238829664 Date: August 29, 2026
TO: SHRI. RAJENDRA VISHWANATH ARLEKAR Hon’ble Governor of Kerala, Lok Bhavan Kerala, Kerala Governor’s Camp P.O., Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, Pin Code: 695 099. Email: [email protected] SUBJECT: FORMAL REPRESENTATION EXPRESSING DEEP ANGUISH AND REQUESTING RETRACTION OF UNWARRANTED PUBLIC REMARKS MALIGNING THE MEMORY OF LATE SHRI. VISHNU SURYA WAGH Respected and Honorable Shri. Arlekar Ji, I am writing to you with a heavy heart, filled with deep anguish and disappointment, regarding the public remarks you recently made(on 28th August, 2026) during a book publication ceremony at the Institute Menezes Braganza (IMB) in Panaji, Goa. Your statements, although delivered without explicitly uttering his name, clearly and unmistakably targeted my late brother, Shri. Vishnu Surya Wagh, and his celebrated collection of Konkani poems, Sudir Sukta. In your address, you referenced your tenure as the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly and spoke of an author who was also an active Member of the Legislative Assembly—describing him as a highly talented, versatile literary friend. You went on to critique his work, alleging that it contained "unwanted language" that caused "deep pain". You claimed that you had personally confronted him, asking if he could read his poetry aloud in front of his family, and asserted that he had no answer to your query. From this, you put forward the sweeping opinion that literature which cannot be loudly recited in front of a family is unworthy of being read, utilized, or honored by society. As the brother of the late Shri. Vishnu Surya Wagh, I find it both highly objectionable and profoundly unfair that you have chosen to bring up these private, politically charged anecdotes on a public platform years after his passing. Casting aspersions on a writer who is no longer among us to defend himself or offer his perspective is a grave disservice to his memory and to the thousands of readers who continue to love and respect his work. Allow me to place the timeline of this controversy in its correct light. The collection Sudhir Sukta was released at the hands of the then Chief Minister, late Shri. Manohar Parrikar in the year 2013. For nearly three years following its publication, the book was read and appreciated without issue. It was only when an official literary award was announced for the book by the Goa Konkani Academy in 2017 when a jury member of the Goa Konkani Akademi prematurely leaks to the press and social media that Sudhir Sukta has been selected for the academy's literary award in the poetry category that a certain conservative section of writers and critics raised objections, weaponizing accusations of "vulgarity." At that exact juncture, when the public controversy erupted, Vishnu was under critical medical care, in a prolonged coma following a massive cardiac arrest, with absolutely no ability to comprehend, let alone comment on, the allegations against his poetry. To publicly assert today that he "did not answer" your question is a misleading representation of history—he was physically and medically incapacitated from defending his own creation. Furthermore, your rigid and restrictive definition of literature—as only that which can be comfortably read aloud in a family drawing-room—reveals a fundamental refusal to understand the rich, revolutionary tradition of Vidrohi Sahitya (Rebellious Literature). Vishnu's poetry in Sudhir Sukta stands proudly in the historical lineage of Sant Tukaram, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. His writing was never meant to be comfortable, polite, or conform to the courtly tastes of darbari politics. It was a raw, defiant, and necessary cry against the deep-seated caste inequalities, oppression, and systemic injustice meted out to the downtrodden and lower-caste communities of Goa. The harsh realities of discrimination and social humiliation are inherently uncomfortable and impolite; sanitizing the language of the oppressed to spare the sensibilities of the privileged defeats the very purpose of social enlightenment and public awakening that you yourself claimed literature should serve. It is a matter of profound hypocrisy that during your long career in Goan politics, you remained consistently silent on the ethical and financial corruption of your fellow MLAs and ministers, yet you have chosen to use your current esteemed office to police the creative expressions of a deceased colleague who dedicated his life and literary genius to highlighting the plight of the marginalized. The present generation, including the very youth that conservative critics dismiss as lacking in values, respects and remembers Vishnu Surya Wagh because he spoke their language of truth and empowerment, and was genuinely committed to social reform, unlike those who are merely interested in protecting established hierarchies. As a highly placed constitutional authority serving as the Hon’ble Governor of Kerala and Tamilnadu which both are progressive states and known for literary and artistic freedom, we expect yourself to be duty-bound to uphold the constitutional values of free expression and pluralism. Maligning the image of a deceased, loved Goan icon to promote a sanitized, exclusionary ideology is beneath the dignity of your post. On behalf of late Vishnu Surya Wagh's family, friends, and admirers, I expect and demand that you act with the dignity expected of your office and formally retract the unwarranted, insulting opinions you expressed about him and his writing. Yours sincerely, Ramrao Surya Wagh _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ Frederick Noronha फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا _/ AUDIO https://archive.org/details/@fredericknoronha _/ http://goa1556.in +91-9822122436 784 Saligao Goa _/ Goanet :: 30 years of discussions. [email protected] _/ http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ -- *** Please be polite and on-topic in your posts. *** --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Goa Book Club" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/CA%2Bmqab8tNGSkxGWg_ys2SU9vibS3WxJ-iHvQztD3rCFum4_3cg%40mail.gmail.com.
