Sahitya Yuva Puraskar awardees ‘flay’ intolerance

Some recipients of this year’s Sahitya Akademi’s Yuva Puraskar on Thursday said accepting the awards does not mean they do not condemn the “religious intolerance” against which several past winners have staged an ‘award wapsi’.

“Receiving this award does not mean that I do not condemn the religious intolerance spreading across the country,” said Kannada author Mounesh Badiger at an awardees’ meet organised by the Sahitya Akademi in the national Capital.

Badiger is among the writers from 23 languages who were conferred the Yuva Puraskar on November 18.

The Kannada writer has been awarded for ‘Maayaa Kolahala’, his collection of short stories “which impresses readers by its symbolism and socio-political consciousness”.

Adivasi writer and medical doctor Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar who was awarded for his English novel ‘The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey’ said returning of awards represents a form of protest. “Returning of awards is a kind of protest. Power is a very dangerous kind of position. Writers are protesting against this position of power and I agree with any kind of protest,” Shekhar said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has dismissed the growing clamour against ‘intolerance’ in India as a “propaganda”, while stating that India was the most tolerant country in the world.