Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Acclaimed authors from all genres and regions of the nation gathered here on Saturday to celebrate the written word, kicking off the 11th iteration of the Odisha Literary Festival. Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Education and Skill Development, opened the two-day annual literary festival, the only one of its type in Eastern India. Speaking at the opening night’s session, “Words, Ideas and Lessons: Creating a New Sense of Identity,” Pradhan said that Tamil Nadu’s objection to the three-language strategy is solely political.
He stated during a rambunctious conversation with TNIE Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla that “while the opposition to NEP in Tamil Nadu is for political reasons, in my view, there is unanimity at the ground level that there should be a scientific temper for the students and language should not be a barrier.”
The Union minister denied claims that individuals sympathetic to the RSS were chosen to lead important institutions in the nation and said that all appointments were made on the basis of merit. But he insisted that the Constitution does not prohibit selecting those who are affiliated with the RSS.
TNIE Editor Santwana Bhattacharya said in introducing the event that it represents everything the publication stands for, including a decentering of power and the need to get nearer to the everyday reality of India. “In this place, we honor literature and the power of words, ideas, and expression. More powerful than any destructive tool and more resilient than anything designed to do bodily harm, she declared.
Siba Mohanty, the Odisha Resident Editor for TNIE, remarked that identification, whether it is national, cultural, caste, class, gender, or ethnicity, has taken center stage in relation to the festival’s topic, “The Ideas of Identity.”
