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After Nayantara Sahgal, Poet Ashok Vajpeyi Returns Award, Takes on PM


Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Oct 07, 2015:  After writer Nayantara Sahgal returned her Sahitya Akademi award protesting against what she called a "vicious assault" on India’s diversity and debate, poet Ashok Vajpeyi has also given up the prestigious literary honour.


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"It is high time that writers take a stand," Mr Vajpeyi, a former chairperson of the Lalit Kala Akademi, said.

"We have an eloquent Prime Minister who addresses lakhs of people, but here writers are being murdered, innocent people are being murdered, his ministers make controversial statements...Still he is quiet. Why doesn’t he shut them up?" he told NDTV.

Mr Vajpeyi also expressed disappointed at the silence of Sahitya Akademi, the national academy of letters comprising writers, and said it "failed to rise to the occasion and respect its autonomy."

He said when he saw a senior writer like Nayantara Sahgal taking a stand, he felt that more writers should support her.  

Nayantara Sahgal, the 88-year-old niece of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, recorded her protest against the government in a scathing statement titled "Unmaking of India". In it, she refers to the recent mob killing of a Muslim man over rumours that he had eaten beef, and also the killings of rationalists MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

"In memory of the Indians who have been murdered, in support of all Indians who uphold the right to dissent, and of all dissenters who now live in fear and uncertainty, I am returning my Sahitya Akademi Award," says the writer known for her outspoken views. The right to dissent, she asserts, is an integral part of India’s Constitution.

Speaking to NDTV, Ms Sahgal questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence.

"The Prime Minister is absolutely silent. He has uttered no word of condemnation at all at these incidents. The whole country wishes the Prime Minister to make a statement because the situation is getting more and more serious," Ms Sahgal said.

"Under Modi we are going backwards, regressing, narrowing down to Hindutva...there is rising intolerance and lots of Indians are living in fear," she commented.

 

 

Courtesy: NDTV


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