Mumbai: Outrage in the social media over inviting rape accused and former editor of 'Tehelka' magazine Tarun J Tejpal to a panel discussion has forced the organizers to drop him from the Times Literary Festival scheduled to be held in Mumbai in the first week of December.
Bachi Karkaria, senior journalist and the director of the festival known as "Times of India's Literary Carnival" has confirmed it in a tweet. Her tweet said, "We have asked Tarun Tejpal to drop out of the TOI Litfest. We've got a great program & we don't want it hijacked by extraneous noise."
After the literary festival organizers extended invitation to Tarun Tejpal to be a panelist in a session named 'Tyranny of Power', the social media erupted in rage calling it an insult to the country's legal system and the victim of his heinous act.
Noted right wing columnist Swapan Dasgupta had also threatened to pull out of the literary festival over invitation to Tejpal. After immense pressure from the social media activists, the organizers dropped his name from the list of panelists. Tejpal was scheduled to participate in a debate with author Basharat Peer, journalist Manu Joseph and the Congress MP Manishankar Aiyar.
Manu Joseph is his former colleague and even wrote an article in 'Outlook' magazine about the jailing of Tejpal. It was criticised by many as an attempt to generate sympathy for Tejpal.
Tejpal is accused of raping a young female colleague at a five-star hotel in Goa during Think Festival organized by his magazine Tehelka in November 2013. He was arrested and sent to a jail in Goa for six months before he came out on bail.
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