Do you know the latest fad in the country akin to the selfie-fad? It’s ‘Award Wapsi’ fad. If you are one of the privileged few to have been honored with the ‘Sahitya Akademi’ award and yet people still do not know your name, then simply return the award and become famous overnight.
The Sahitya Akademi is a literary body and not a government body. Why is it being blamed for the so-called diminishing freedom in the nation for writers? In fact, the reasons being mentioned by the writers are really strange.
They cite the Dadri lynching episode and murder of three rationalists as a growing sign of intolerance to freedom of choice and expression in the country.
If the country were really so unsafe, they wouldn’t have had the courage to return the awards in the first place. Besides, did even a single one of these writers speak out when Muslim fundamentalism took innocent lives in the form of Mumbai attacks and Dilsukhnagar blasts?
Did any one of them speak a single line condemning the attack on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad, a reputed writer with international acclaim?
For the simple reason that they do not have the courage to do it! But you can speak out against the Hindu establishment and appear pompous and self-righteous in the process.
A classic club of pseudo-seculars!
