Thrissur: Writer Sarah Joseph, who on Saturday decided to return her Kendra Sahitya Akademi award, told DC that the statement of Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, on Sunday that the Akademi stood for protecting the freedom of writers lacked clarity and was not in any way satisfactory.
“The Akademi has failed to protect the freedom of writers and I am appalled to hear that such a prestigious institution does not have courage to take the names of writers like M M Kalburgi.
“Jnanpith Award recipient U.R. Ananthamurthy, was insulted even after his death for his comments against Narendra Modi. Perumal Murugan decided to withdraw all his books in protest against attempts to gag writers. Rationalist writers are murdered one after other and I don’t think there will be any country like India, where freedom of expression is denied using terror,” she said.
Rather than making such vague statements, Akademi should condemn the attack on writers by taking the names, Ms Sarah said.
