Wreath placed outside writer V S Anilkumar’s house

Kozhikode: A wreath was placed outside the residence of writer and cultural critic V S Anilkumar at Kannapuram in Kannur on Thursday morning.Anilkumar had received the book, Nethruthwathe Anikal Thiruthanam, written by expelled CPM leader V Kunhikrishnan during its release function at Payyannur on Feb 4.Anilkumar, son of the late Marxist thinker and literary critic M N Vijayan, said that he would not be intimidated, describing the placement of wreath as an outdated tactic of intimidation.He noted that his son, an eighth-standard student, first noticed it near the gate inside their compound around 5.30am while leaving for football coaching.When asked if he suspected a link between the incident and his participation at the book launch, Anilkumar said he did not wish to speculate and that the police should identify those responsible. He added that in a democracy, criticism and disagreement should be accepted as such, and added that such values were getting eroded layer by layer.He said only thieves and cowards act under the cover of darkness and added that he was not ready to fear cowards.Asked whether he had received any threats after attending the book release function, Anilkumar said that there were no direct threats but added that a local activist had in a Facebook post tacitly said that if anyone tried to provoke them, they would react.Meanwhile, Kunhikrishnan said that if anyone did this act at this moment, one could assume who could have done it. He, however, said that it was an attempt to restrict freedom of expression.