Agra academicians 'condemn' writers returning Akademis

AGRA: A bunch of academicians in Agra, from teachers in degree colleges to university professors, held a press conference in the city on Monday to condemn those returning SahityaAkademi awards. Maintaining that it was being carried out "with a deliberate design to shame the nation", they came down heavily on "such litterateurs showing the nation in a poor light".
Specially targeting an Urdu poet who returned the award during a live TV show, the teachers, who didn't take the writer's name, said such authors were bent upon showing the nation in poor light and must be probed "as they might be acting in concert and with a deliberate strategy to undo the good work done by the nation’s prime minister".
Addressing a press conference under the banner of Akhil Bhartiya Acharya Parishad, several teachers from Dr BR Ambedkar University and associated degree colleges also claimed that returning the Sahitya Akademi awards was just a "propaganda" by the authors to come into the limelight. They alleged that those doing so were giving birth to "intellectual terrorism" in the country, "that too at a time when PM Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee are making efforts to befriend other countries so that India gets a permanent seat in the UN".
Luvkush Mishra, coordinator, Akhil Bhartiya Acharya Parishad and director Tourism Institute of Agra university, said, “All those returning the Sahitya Akademi awards are shaming the nation and playing with the emotions of the citizens. Where were these authors when incidents like Babri (demolition), Godhra riots took place? They are so worried regarding the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, which I too condemn, but why were they silent when Sikhs were murdered in 1984, Hindus were targeted in Assam in 2013 and Prashant Poojary (a Bajrang Dal leader) was killed in Karnataka?”
Rajesh Dhakre, another professor at BR Ambedkar University, called the authors "bhagora" (absconders). He said, "If they are so pained at the law and order situation, why do they need to return the award on live TV? They can return it quietly. There is a huge international conspiracy behind these frequent returning of the awards.”
A celebrated name in modern Hindi and Urdu poetry, Munawwar Rana on Sunday had returned the Sahitya Akademi award during a live TV show in New Delhi. He was presented with the Sahitya Akademi award in 2014 for his immense contribution to Urdu literature.
Coming out in support of Rana, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, winner of the Sahitya Akademi award in Urdu for his composition ‘Tanquidi Afkar’, said he is behind "all his other friends" who have returned the award as a mark of protest against freedom of speech and communal tension in the country.
“Many people are returning their awards. I support them. I am with Nayantara Sehgal and Munawwar Rana who returned the award along with the (prize) money," he added.