Approximately 30 awardees have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards, and four members of the Akademi have resigned to protest the rising communal intolerance and hatred in the country.
Nayantara Sahgal was the first person to return her award to protest the repeated attacks on writers and rationalists in the country. Following her example, a number of people are returning their awards every day, in a form of protest that is beginning to worry the Akademi.
Actor and BJP MP Kirron Kher said that the move by these writers is politically motivated.
I think the intellectuals who are giving up their awards are completely politically motivated, it’s quite obvious. So many people died in 1984 in Delhi... around 3,000 Sikhs. But no one gave back their awards that time. The y are now screaming about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP and RSS, so they are obviously politically motivated. It’s so obvious you know. Rub the surface and the truth comes out.
— Kirron Kher, Actor
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