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New Zealand writer Eleanor Catton, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2013, poses for photographs at the Guildhall in central London, October 15, 2013. Catton won the 2013 Man Booker prize for English fiction on Tuesday for her novel "The Luminaries", to become the youngest winner in the award's 45-year history. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has slammed Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton for her alleged lack of respect for the government. Catton dissed the country’s politicians, as well as Kiwis in general, at the Jaipur Literary Festival.

The 29-year-old Canadian-born Kiwi author, whose novel “The Luminaries” won the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2013, had a lot to say about New Zealand while she was in India on Saturday. She was quoted describing New Zealand as a country dominated by “neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture.”

“I feel very angry with my government,” Catton said. Her strong feelings about the government were explained by Mr Key as coming from someone who is in line with the Green Party, and therefore not reflective of what all Kiwis think about the administration.

“I’m disappointed she doesn’t have respect for what we do because I have tremendous respect for her as a writer,” Mr Key, who hails from the National Party, said.

Catton didn’t just particularly target the government. She was also frustrated with the lack of support for writers from New Zealanders in general. She admitted she feels uncomfortable in being an ambassador for her country when it “is not doing as much as it could, especially for the intellectual world.”

She told reporters at the festival that New Zealand doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the intellectual capacity of its citizens. She cited her own experience as a local writer, thinking that she wasn’t good enough because as a Kiwi, it is perceived that she is automatically less than other writers from countries like Britain and America.

“We have this strange cultural phenomenon called ‘tall poppy syndrome’; if you stand out, you will be cut down,” she was quoted by Live Mint as saying. She explained that the year she won the Man Booker Prize for “The Luminaries,” the New Zealand Book Award was given to someone else because she already won an international honour.

“If you get success overseas then very often the local population can suddenly be very hard on you. Or the other problem is that the local population can take ownership of that success in a way that is strangely proprietal.”

At just 28 years old in 2013, Catton became the youngest author to win the Man Booker Prize. Her winning novel, “The Luminaries,” is also the longest book at 832 pages to ever win the award in its 44-year history.