The Freethought Party of India urged the Sahitya Academy awardees from Odisha to give up the awards protesting the killing of rationalist literary figure and Kendra Sahitya Akademi awardee Dr MM Kalburgi of Kannada literature and lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq of Dadri area of UP by Hindu extremists.
“Odisha is the land of late Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das. He was brave and bold. All the writers of Odisha should be inheritors of the legacy. Each Odia writer should revolt against the systematic efforts by which Talibanic elements in Hindu society have been killing the idea of India–projected so nicely in the Constitution of India,” said a release of the party.
Eminent writers like Nayantara Sahgal, Udya Prakash, Mangalesh Dabral, Rajesh Joshi, Ganesh Devy, N Shivadas, Kum Veerabhadrappa, Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Atamjit Singh and Waryam Singh Sandhu have returned their Shahiya Akademi awards to highlight their anxiety over the shrinking space for free expression and growing intolerance towards diff erences of opinions. We clearly see a threat to our democracy, secularism and freedom.
The Freethought Party of India clearly feels, the Odia writers should not lag behind in their commitment to “freedom of speech and expression, the release added.