Donning black gags and arm bands, writers and their supporters held a solidarity march ahead of the Sahitya Akademi emergency meeting to discuss the returning of awards by eminent authors. Over 35 authors from different parts of the nation had returned their awards and stepped down from official Akademi positions in protest against “rising intolerance” in the backdrop MM Kalburgi’s killing.
Demanding that the Akademi pass a resolution pledging to take stern steps to safeguard freedom of speech and right to dissent of the authors, writers of different languages converged for the silent march carrying banners from Sri Ram Centre at Safdar Hashmi Marg to the Sahitya Akademi building.
Akademi chairman Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari accepted the memorandum given by the protersters and said he will consider it in the meeting. “The executive council of the Akademi should pass a resolution that it will take stern steps to safeguard the freedom of speech and right to dissent of the writers,” the memorandum said.
The protesters has also criticised Tiwari’s recent statements in which he dubbed as “illogical” the act of several writers returning their awards. They also called for a written apology from Tiwari against statements he had made about Akademi award winning writers having made gains from their award royalties.
The protest march was convened by five groups — Janvadi lekhak Sangh, Pragatisheel lekhak Sangh, Jansanskriti Manch, Dalit lekhak Sangh and Sahitya Sanvad. Eminent writers Keki N Daruwala, Geeta Hariharan, Anuradha Kapoor (former director National School of Drama), Shekhar Joshi and Javed Ali among others were part of the protest.
Calling the getting together of writers as historic step in the literary history of the country, the protesters called for the Akademi to condemn in strong terms the killings of Kannada writer Kalburgi and other writers and rationalists and assure the writers that the Akademi would in these times of distress ensure the right to freedom of speech and expression. “Tiwari has lost the trust of the writers. If Tiwari does not apologise and conduct a condolence meet for Kalburgi in Delhi, we will demand his resignation,” a statement by the writers said.