Political considerations behind award returning: Governor

PTI, Kolkata, 15 October, 2015: West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Thursday said there appeared to be "some kind of political consideration" behind returning the Sahitya Akademi awards by various writers to protest against "growing intolerance".

"Return of sammans (awards) is unfortunate but it makes one ponder as to whether there is a small group of persons who are lobbying for return of these sammans. One has to find out why.

"Because in the meantime from the day they received the sammans and the day they returned it several incidents had happened in the country. How is it that none of the incidents prompted them to return the sammans ? And why now ?" the governor asked while talking to reporters here.

"Let the people know about their (writers who returned the awards) political convictions and political affiliations. The people will decide," he said.

"Why did they not return the sammans when Nirbhaya incident had happened in Delhi and when Muzaffarnagar incident happened in UP? How is it they they have awakened just now? There appears to be some kind of political considerations behind it," Tripathi remarked.

Several writers including Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi have decided to return their Akademi award to protest against what they called rising intolerance.