Won’t return Akademi awards: Bengali legends

Guwahati: Eminent Bengali littérateurs Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Subodh Sarkar, both winners of Sahitya Akademi awards, told TOI on Wednesday that the current trend of writers returning their Sahitya Akademi awards to protest against ‘rising intolerance’ was a meaningless exercise.
The duo, along with prominent writers from Assam, took part in an interactive literary session at the ongoing 17th North-East Book Fair in the city.
The two literary stalwarts said they would not return their awards. They added, however, that they respected those who had done so. They duo also expressed concern over increasing attacks on writers and freedom of expression.
Mukhopadhyay, who won the award in 1988 for his novel ‘Manobjomin’ said the honour had been bestowed on him by the Akademi and a different government had been in power then. “Since I have got it, how can I return the award? This act of returning the award is meaningless. I honour the decision of those who have returned it but I feel there are other ways of registering protest,” Mukhopadhyay said. Referring to the Dadri lynching, he added that no one had the right to dictate the food habits of people.
“I am a strict vegetarian. I find no meaning in this violence over consumption of beef. India is a multi-religious and a diverse country. We have to be tolerant and patient,” he added.
Poet Sarkar also said he would not return his Sahitya Akademi award. “There are ways of protesting against growing intolerance. The writers and intellectuals have written to the President. Moreover, the Sahitya Akademi has taken a resolution,” added Sarkar.