With no let up in writers’ protest against killings of Kannada author MM Kalburgi and others and rising intolerance in the country, the Sahitya Akademi on Friday strongly condemned such incidents and urged litterateurs to take back the awards they have returned as a mark of protest.
At an emergency board meet to discuss recent developments, the Akademi expressed solidarity with the writers urging those authors who had returned awards conferred by it to take them back and appealed to those who have stepped down from various Akademi posts to take back their resignations.
The Akademi is “deeply pained and strongly condemns the murder of Prof MM Kalburgi and the other intellectuals and thinkers. As the only autonomous institution of Indian literature in all its diversities, the Akademi firmly supports the writers’ right to freedom of expression in all the languages of India and condemns any atrocity against any writer anywhere in the country,” it said in a resolution.
The Akademi also asked the State and Central Governments to take immediate action to bring the culprits to book and ensure the security of writers now and in future.
“The Akademi appeals to State and Central Government to take steps to prevent such incidents in the future”, Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu, an executive committee board member from Tamil Nadu said emerging from the meet.
The Akademi had called the emergency meeting on Friday after more than 40 writers from across the country over the past one week announced their decision to return their Sahitya Akademi awards alleging “growing intolerance” in the country.
The meet was attended by 20 out of 24 executive council members. “All writers stand together in their decision to condemn the killings,” Nachimuthu said.
K Satchidanandan, who had resigned from all positions in the Sahitya Akademi stating that it “failed in its duty to stand with the writers and to uphold freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution”, did not attend Firday’s meeting.
The others who skipped the meeting were lalit Mangtrata, Prem Pradhan and Balchand Nemade. The Akademi is now set to meet on December 17.