Sahitya Akademi condemns Kalburgi murder

The Sahitya Akademi finally broke its silence on Friday and condemned the incidents of violence against "fellow citizens” as well as the murder of Kannada writer M M Kalburgi and other progressive thinkers. "As the only autonomous institution of Indian literature in all its diversities, the Akademi firmly supports writers’ right to freedom of expression in all the languages of India,” the literary body said in a statement. "The Akademi condemns any atrocity against any writer in the country in the strongest words, and asks governments at the Centre and in the states to take immediate action to bring the culprits to book.” "The Sahitya Akademi demands that the Centre and states maintain the ambience of peaceful co-existence in society, and urges various communities of our society to put aside differences on the grounds of caste, religion, region and ideologies,” it added. The literary body also urged the writers who have returned their awards to "reconsider” their decision. "The Akademi is an organisation of writers for writers, an institution guided solely by writers,” the literary body said, and also requested the writers who have dissociated themselves from it by resigning from their official positions to reconsider their decisions. Sources said Akademi president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari agreed with the writers’ accusation that the literary body remained silent over the killing of Kalburgi and others, but claimed he had asked Akademi vice-president Chandrashekhar Kambar to convey the organisation’s sentiments after Kalburgi was murdered. Protest & counter-protest The meeting, held amid silent protests and counter-protests by two different groups of writers outside the Akademi premises, was attended by 20 of the 24 executive board members. Eminent writers Keki N Daruwala, Geeta Hariharan, Anuradha Kapoor, Shekhar Joshi and Javed Ali were among those who joined the protest march by writers who supported those who returned the awards. A counter-protest march by another group of writers under the banner of Nationalist Minded Artists and Thinkers - JANMAT - demanded that the literary body not buckle under pressure. "We want to appeal to the Sahitya Akademi to maintain its autonomous nature and not come under pressure from the same writers who had earlier appealed to the people not to give their mandate to Narendra Modi,” said JANMAT in its memorandum submitted to the Akademi chief. Deccan Herald