By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 18 Oct 2015: Joining the league of protesting writers, India’s famous Urdu poet Munawwar Rana returned his Sahitya Akademi award during a live TV news program on Sunday. Rana returned the cash award of Rs one lakh also. In the last two weeks, more than 50 writers and poets have returned the Akademi award as a mark of protest against the growing intolerance and attack on writers in the country.
In the recent past, three eminent writers — M. M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare — have been killed allegedly by right-wing fringe groups. Last week, eminent writer and journalist Sudheendra Kulkarni was assaulted and his face blackened by members of Shiv Sena in Mumbai for hosting a book launch event for a former Pakistan minister.
In protest against these attacks, over 50 writers including Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpayee have returned their awards. Many of them have mentioned the lynching of a man over beef rumours in Dadri as one of the reasons for returning the awards.
Meanwhile, an international body of writers has expressed concern over the rising intolerance and attacks on writers in India. PEN International has written to the President and Prime Minister of the country to take steps to protect rights of citizens including writers.
“Writers from 150 countries assembled here in Quebec City in Canada for the 81st Congress of PEN International have expressed grave concern over the crisis following the murder of noted scholar and intellectual, M.M. Kalburgi,” John Ralston Saul, President of PEN International, wrote in a letter to President Parnab Mukharjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of Sahitya Akademi on 17th Oct.
“We stand in solidarity with the more than fifty novelists, scholars, poets, and public intellectuals who have returned their awards to the Akademi and admire their courage,” Saul said while expressing solidarity with the writers including Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpayee who have returned their awards.
The PEN International has demanded the government of India to take strong action to protect rights of everyone including writers and artists.
The “strongly-held” view of PEN International is that the Indian Government “takes immediate steps to protect the rights of everyone, including writers and artists, in the finest traditions of Indian society and culture, and indeed, the letter and spirit of the Indian constitution.”
The body of writers also asked the Narendra Modi government to contain its ministers and ensure probe into murders of three writers in the recent past.
“The government must reassure the community of writers and artists that its ministers are tolerant of diverse views. Also, it must ensure that the investigations into the murders of M. M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare are conducted fairly and expediently and their killers are brought to justice,” the PEN demanded.
Related Story: Why are Muslim writers not returning awards, ask community leaders
