Ghar Wapsi? Are some writers taking back their awards?

The writer said he is disappointed that some writers have relented and agreed to take back the awards they had returned.

The Hindi poet was among the earliest of about 40 writers who had returned their awards in the past few months to the Sahitya Akademi in protest against the literary body’s silence on the killing of writer and rationalist MM Kalburgi.

The Sahitya Akademi later passed a resolution “condemning the attack on and murder of any writer or artist and requesting the writers, who had returned the awards, to reconsider their decision”. “This is also intolerance”, Mr Vajpeyi said on the sidelines of the ongoing Jaipur Literature festival.

Sahitya Akademi on Friday said some of the writers, including Nayantara Sahgal, have agreed to take back the awards they had returned citing “growing intolerance” in the country.

“It was a different situation in the country when the authors returned the award”.

Sahgal, niece of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and one of the first to join the “award waapsi” campaign, said that she was being misquoted as she just agreed to take it back in view of the contention that there is no provision to return it. “The Akademi strongly condemns the killing of writer Kalburgi and appeals to the state and Central government to take steps to prevent such incidents in the future”, Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu, an executive committee board member had said after the meeting.

According to the source, Ms Sahgal chose to take back her award as there is no provision to return the award. Sharma reiterated that the award is the “respect given by the nation” to the writers and they should “keep it with themselves respectfully”. “Intolerance and other issues remain, but now I woul dn’t hold the Akademi responsible since that’s not its mandate”, he said.

In October 2015, Sahgal had returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in protest of the “vanishing space” for diversity. However, in October, the Akademi held a meeting and assured us that it stands by and supports the writers, ” said Bhardwaj, who is also a former director of Doordarshan.

“I have received the resolution and the letter from the Akademi but I don’t think that its conduct as an autonomous institution devoted to excellence has been rehabilitated”.