The latest string of protests took to 15 the number of writers who have returned their awards to the Akademi since Hindi writer Uday Prakash first did so last month over the killing of Kalburgi.
Written by Ashutosh Bhardwaj
New Delhi Published:Oct 12, 2015, 1:43
Those who returned their awards on Sunday included Hindi poets Mangalesh Dabral and Rajesh Joshi; Vadodara-based Ganesh Devy; Konkani writer N Shivdas; Kannada writer Kum Veerabhadrappa; and Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Atamjit Singh and Waryam Singh Sandhu from Punjab.
Nine writers returned their Sahitya Akademi awards on Sunday in protest against the organisation’s silence on the recent killing of a man in Dadri over rumours of cow slaughter and the murder of author M M Kalburgi, allegedly for his rationalist views.
The latest string of protests took to 15 the number of writers who have returned their awards to the Akademi since Hindi writer Uday Prakash first did so last month over the killing of Kalburgi. Also on Sunday, Kannada author Aravind Malagatti submitted his resignation from the Akademi’s General Council.