The 'Sahitya Akademi' has finally issued a statement condemning the attacks on free expression and also the murder of Professor Khalburgi.
In the same vein, it also requested the writers to take back their awards. This might appear to be a victory to the protesting writers and it actually is: for is this not what they had been asking for all along, a condemnation of the existing situation in the nation for writers, from the Sahitya Akademi?
But ultimately, what is it that these people have gained? Pretty soon, much like the issue of farmer suicides, another writer returning his award would no longer make front page news.
Also, the Sahitya Akademi is a literary body and not a political one. God forbid, should another attack on another rationalist writers happen again in the near future, what are the writers going to do?
Surely, they can’t return their awards again or ask for the Akademi to speak out? What then would be their next step? Would they give up writing altogether?
