Sixteen Sahitya Akademi award winning Tamil writers have condemned the Akademi for not adequately condemning the killing of Kannada writer M.K. Kalburgi and its failure to bring pressure on the Centre to protect freedom of expression.
“The situation has come to such pass that there was no security for the life of a writer not to mention the threat to freedom of expression. The Akademi has not condemned the act in no uncertain terms. On the contrary it has just issued a general statement. It is not adequate and we demand that the Akademi take a stronger stand,” the writers said.
The signatories are Indira Parthasarathy, K. Rajanarayanan, Ponneelan, Prabanchan, Ashokamitran, Thoppil Mohamed Meeran, ‘Kavikko’ Abdul Rahman, Vairamuthu, Erode Tamilanban, Mu. Metha, Melanmai Ponnusamy, Puviarasu, Nanjil Nadan, Su. Venkatesan, D. Selvaraj and Poomani.
Reiterating that India was an amalgamation of diverse cultures and historically there are different form of worships and food habits, they said it was highly condemnable that writers and intellectuals expressing dissent views were being silenced with violence means.
“The trend should be stopped immediately,” they said and called upon writers and people of all section to join hands to protect democracy, freedom of expression and secularism in the country.
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