The Valley-based cultural group, Adbee Markaz Kamraz (AMK), on Sunday expressed solidarity with all those writers who returned their awards to the Sahitya Akademi over growing communal frenzy in the country.
“The writers who returned their awards in protest must be supported by one and all. They are people with conscience,” said AMK president Syed Shujaat Bukhari.
“Resignations by K. Satchidanandan and Shashi Deshpande from the prestigious body of Sahitya Akademi and returning of awards by Nayantara Sahgal and former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman Ashok Vajpeyi and Uday Prakash is an eye opener for all,” he added.
The AMK urged the Sahitya Akademi award winners from Kashmir “to stand up and muster courage to side with right thinking people.”
“Unfortunately, this wave of communal frenzy has been showing its head in Jammu and Kashmir as well and if not contained and fought back it will have disastrous consequences,” warned Mr. Bukhari.
The body of around 1100 writers, poets and scholars of Kashmiri language, also expressed anguish over the silence maintained by Sahitya Akademi over the murder of noted writer Professor Kalburgi who was killed a month ago.
