Panaji, Aug 19 - Renowned Goan artist Subodh Kerkar, accused by rightwing groups of denigrating Lord Ganesh, has found support from Mumbai-based intelligentsia who have condemned the 'aggressive political mobilisations based on the politics of identity'.

In an open letter released to media Wednesday, the Pen All-India Centre has condemned the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) for demanding the closure of Kerkar's Ganesh exhibition scheduled later this month.

'These attacks on cultural expression come at a very sensitive moment in Goa's history. They gain urgency when viewed against the backdrop of escalating suspicion of, and violence against, the state's Muslim population,' office-bearers of the group, Ranjit Hoskote, Naresh Fernandes and Jerry Pinto, have said.

Pen All-India centre is a part of International Pen, an association founded in the 1920 in London 'to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere'. The name was coined as an acronym for Poets, Essayists and Novelists, but the body which has several international editions, now serves as a broad umbrella for artists from a wide range of creative art forms.

Pen All-India's letter further states that Goa had for nearly a millennia been a multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic place and that it was unfortunate that the region was being 'subjected to such aggressive political mobilisations based on the politics of identity'.