Panaji, Aug 17 (IANS) In a major snub to Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, celebrated playwright Girish Karnad has refused to be part of a think tank promoted by the state government to prepare a vision document for the state.

Karnad, in a terse letter to Kamat last week, wrote that he was withdrawing from the Golden Jubilee Development Council (GJDC) because of the inability of the state administration to stop Hindu vigilante groups from pressuring a Christian artist to stop his exhibition of Hindu gods last month.

"I should like to withdraw my name from the high level committee which you were kind enough to invite me to serve on since this is not the culture of liberation I had hoped to celebrate," the Padma Bhushan awardee said in his letter.

Karnad, a Jnanpith award winner, was referring to artist Jose Pereira's exhibition on Hindu deities Shiva and Krishna, which right wing organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) members claimed denigrated the deities.

The mute response of the state administration, including the police, had been severely criticised by civil society groups here.

Karnad said he was "shocked" and "horrified" by the Congress-led coalition government's inaction in face of protest by the right wing forces.

"Let me say how deeply shocked I am to hear of the attacks by self-styled standard-bearers of Hindu culture on the works of Jose Pereira, a scholar and artist of eminence. I am horrified that private vigilante groups should be permitted to take the law into their hands while the state stands mute and the police express inability to protect the exhibition of his work," Karnad said.

Kamat in his Independence Day address had said the GJDC headed by former director general of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Raghunath Mashelkar would create a road map for Goa - Goa Vision 2035 - which would guide the state to the pinnacle of glory in the next 25 years.

This is not the first time that Kamat has received a 'scholarly snub'.

In May last year, founder president of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) V.A. Pai Panandikar had declined an invitation to be a member of the state planning board.

Panandikar in a letter to Kamat had pointed out that there was an "increasing dissonance between the priorities of the people and of the government".

"Except for Goa's real estate, there is no political constituency for the next phase of Goa's evolution. It does not serve any useful purpose and I certainly do not wish to impose my costs on the people of Goa," Panandikar had said, refusing Kamat's invitation to join the planning board.