The return of the Sahitya Akademi award is transparently illegitimate. The authors are returning it just to discredit the present Government. They have deliberately chosen to ignore certain facts that would prove them wrong. Will they then take back their awardsIJ
Many authors have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards and many are still doing so; the numbers are insignificant. However, what is more important here is to judge as to why these authors have made the award a source to vent out their anger.
The argument and the inescapable counter-argument have to be elaborately analysed. Since this analysis has to occupy a lot of space, it will be convenient to begin with one or two observations made by some shrewd critics of the dissenters.
Critics have observed that these authors have done a sort of rope trick to gain double publicity on one performance. When the authors received the award, a number of years ago, legitimately, they gained some publicity. But that was incomparably less than what their illegitimate act of dissent has received today. Some have even gone overboard, turning themselves into martyrs at the altar of free speech, making a mountain out of what is not even a mole hill.
Moreover, the authors have not clarified whether they have returned the prize money (plus interest), which they received along with the award, years ago. They have just revelled for a few minutes in their ephemeral moment of double publicity.
The return of the Sahitya Akademi award is transparently illegitimate. The highly publicised reason for the authors to return the award is the supposed surge of religious intolerance in the country. The evidence for this surge is provided by three incidents of murder in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. One of these incidents, that of the death of a Muslim in Uttar Pradesh has received by far the greatest publicity.
India is known for its vast diversity and people can be divided into numerous groups and sub-groups with visible/invisible conflicts of interest and clashes of emotions. Therefore, to give disproportionate importance to the few aforesaid instances of murder is to defy common sense, and inevitably arouses suspicion of a political motive.
It is easy to assess the political motive. Protesting authors, mostly beneficiaries of bounties from the political cottage industry owners in New Delhi (or the dynasty members), who have ruled this country for decades till recently, somehow want to discredit the present Government in New Delhi, which has replaced the dynasty. Therefore, they attack the Sahitya Akademi, an autonomous body under the Government of India, and thus try to discredit the present regime.
They deliberately chose to ignore the facts that the few incidents which influenced these authors, occurred in two States where the ruling party does not run the Government, and that under the Constitution, maintenance of law and order is a State subject.
The incident they refer to in Maharashtra happened during the Congress rule, while the other attack was promptly referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Nevertheless, this deliberate ignorance on the part of the protesters is insignificant, when compared to their abysmal unconcern for what has been happening in the eastern region of India. In at least two States of this region, one lasting phenomenon — in contrast to the few temporary incidents which have upset the dissident authors — has been persistent use of ‘secularism, as a recourse to ‘appeasement’ politics, wedded to vote-bank politics.
Millions of infiltrators have come from Bangladesh, acquired properties, voter cards etc. Quite a few of them have joined various terrorist organisation with links to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami. Some of these infiltrators/terrorists commit atrocities in places as far away as New Delhi
and Bangalore.
In their own locality, in India’s eastern region, at some intervals, they not only kill Hindus and burn their shops and houses, but force them to leave their ancestral homes in border areas and move to interior places. All of this, however, leaves the State Governments unperturbed. They do not contemplate any strong step against old/new Muslim infiltrators, despite admonitions by the Supreme Court.
Even television anchors avoid discussions on atrocities upon Hindus for the sake of their pre-conceptions about secularism. When bombs went off in Burdwan, or when in March 2014, a raucous rally was organised in the heart of Kolkata, in support of the war criminals in Bangladesh and calling for death to those who dared support Bangladesh’s liberation war, all intellectuals in Bengal, who are suddenly feeling insecure, were silent.
When the Nadia nun molestation and robbery case happened, even then these intellectuals did not feel insecure. How will the authors interpret all these momentous and continuous happeningsIJ Will they admit that they are guilty of double standardsIJ
In order to cut a long story short, one can refer to some latest instances of remarkable secularism on the part of some leaders, especially the ones in the ruling dispensation in the State of West Bengal today.
In the capital of one eastern State, Muharram witnessed a complete closure of a major avenue on Shasthi, for a few hours, to facilitate the rehearsal of the Muharram procession. This caused terrible inconvenience to hundreds of private car drivers and thousands of pedestrians who wished to visit the famous Durga puja pandals, which are noted for their artistic grace and splendour, reflected in the construction of extraordinary models, eg, that of an African tribal village.
This inconvenience was multiplied in the same city on Shasthi, because another arterial thoroughfare was closed for the same reason for a long time. Of course such inconvenience was silently absorbed despite creating a sense of deep frustration among the people.
From some quarters, comes news of a perpetual ban on holding the Durga puja itself — as for example, reports came from Nalhati in the district of Birbhum, where Hindus have been disallowed from celebrating Durga Puja from 2012 onwards! Yet, no murmur of protest was heard from the guardians of free speech and tolerance in this country, and the news was either suppressed or downplayed.
In one metropolitan city of India’s eastern region, again, many organising committees of the Durga puja have been headed by Muslims. In one pandal, there was an innovative model of a home in a village/ Chhitmahal/enclave, which has recently passed from the possession of Bangladesh to that of India. This model includes a seated man, woman, and a child. The husband wears a cap, sports a beard, and the child’s name, Jehad, is also displayed. This can be treated as the grand finale!
Will the protesting authors now repent their boundless ignorance, express their appreciation of rising secularism in the country, and take back their Sahitya Akademi awardsIJ
(The writer is a scholar of India’s foreign policy, diplomacy and neighbourhood studies)