In the afternoon of 13 July a small number of Shiv Sainiks and their cohorts held a demonstration in front of the hotel Le Meridien and publicly burnt the effigy of Dilip Kumar, the most revered of India’s living actors. They did so after publicly announcing their intention well in advance of the action, and performed their ritual of fire in the presence of a large number of policemen, in front of one of the city’s most prestigious hotels. As a cultural organization committed to struggle against communal intimidation of India’s artists, writers and intellectuals, Sahmat condemns this heinous action in the strongest possible terms. We find it impossible to believe that this could have been done without the collusion of the

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highest authorities in Delhi, who knew of it in advance and could have stopped it from happening. Dilip Kumar has commanded the love of millions of Indians and has been a great symbol of our composite cultural traditions. This attack on him is part of the terror campaign that has been unleashed against some of our greatest artists and these attacks on artists are part of the campaign of terror that has been going on India against all liberal, progressive, anti-communal people. Whether or not Dilip Kumar shall retain any or all of the awards he has received in the course of his distinguished career is entirely up to him, and no one in this country can be granted the right to hound and terrorize him in the garb of patriotism.