After Nayantara, Vajpeyi returns Akademi Award
9 Oct 2015 5:03 AM IST
Ashok Vajpeyi, a literary heavyweight, has returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, joining a parade of litterateurs renouncing their coveted prizes, to protest “assault on <g data-gr-id="36">right</g> to freedom of both life and expression”.
Vajpeyi’s decision came close on the heels of celebrated writer Nayantara Sahgal yesterday returning the Sahitya Akademi Award over “vicious assault” on “India’s culture of diversity and debate” and the “right to dissent”.
Vajpeyi, a former chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, voiced displeasure over the Dadri lynching incident and a string of killings of <g data-gr-id="30">rationalists,</g> while questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's continued silence on these.
"Sehgal was right. He is a very loquacious Prime Minister. Why doesn't he tell the nation that the pluralism of this country will be defended at every cost?" Vajpeyi said.
The 74-year-old Hindi poet, essayist noted critic on literary and cultural matters, disapproved of statements by senior political leaders, including Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma which, he said, "belittled the "<g data-gr-id="25">multi-cultural</g> and multi-religious" fabric of the country.
"There are the comments made by the Culture Minister about renaming <g data-gr-id="26">Aurangazeb</g> road to APJ Abdul Kalam road. He says Kalam was a great nationalist despite being a Muslim.
"These kinds of statements belittle the <g data-gr-id="24">multi-cultural</g> and multi-religious fabric of the country....What can writers do but protest," he said.
Sahgal, the 88-year-old niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, had in an open letter titled "Unmaking of India" referred to the lynching of a Muslim man by a mob in Dadri on Delhi's outskirts over suspicion of eating beef, and also the killings of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.
Don't politicise Sahitya Akademi: chairperson Tiwari
Following announcements by writer Nayantara Sehgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi to return their Sahitya Akademi awards, the literary body's president said authors should "adopt a different way to protest" and not politicise the autonomous body. "The Akademi is not a government organisation but an autonomous body. The award is given to a writer for a chosen work and there is no logic to return the award because it is not like the Padma awards," Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari said.
Meanwhile, Opposition parties praised the two writers for "standing up" to the idea of a "plural" India.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that "cheap" political leaders are "attacking" the very soul of India by "decrying and denying" the country's diversity.
Next Story
