As the chorus against the “communal” atmosphere following the killing of writer Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi is growing with each passing day with Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie too on Monday joining the protesting litterateurs, Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said he suspected their motives for such “not called for” action.
“If you go back to people, who have done this and if we explore their motives and what has been their background, I think something revealing will come out,” Sharma said.
He said those deciding to hand back the honours should have written to the State or Central Government and to him if they were concerned about the law and order situation. “But they have not done this,” he added.
“I think that is not called for or that is not a right way of presentation. I wish they would have represented their voice and we would have joined their voice. We are with them to support their cause that nobody should be killed in this country,” the Minister said.
At least 21 authors have announced their decision to return their awards with some warning that minorities in the country today feel “unsafe and threatened”.
Questioning the purpose behind returning the awards, Sharma, however, said, “What is the theory behind, what is the philosophy behind, I cannot understand.”
He said as an individual they have got the award, which was given to them by a group of literary persons on the basis of some of their writings, some of their books or in different languages.
“It is not a Government of India award, it is not a Padma award,” he stated. Following uproar, the Akademi has called for a meeting of the Executive Board on October 23.
Rushdie tweeted, “I support Nayantara Sahgal and the many other writers protesting to the Sahitya Akademi. Alarming times for free expression in India.” Eighty-eight-year-old Sahgal, niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, was among the first to lodge her protest against the Akademi’s silence over repeated attacks on writers and rationalists who were raising their voice of dissent.
Kashmiri writer Ghulam Nabi Khayal, Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas, Kannada writer-translator Srinath DN, Hindi writers Mangalesh Dabral and Rajesh Joshi have said they were handing back their Sahitya awards.
Punjabi author Waryam Sandhu and Kannada translator GN Ranganatha Rao have decided to give back their awards.
Sahitya Akademi President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari had said that the institution was committed to the core secular values enshrined in the Constitution of India.