Sahitya Akademi in a fix as returned awards pile up

HYDERABAD: When Telugu author M Bhoopal Reddy was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi award in 2011, he deposited the Rs 50,000 cash component in a bank. Over the last four years, he did not withdraw the money. When he recently decided to return the award as part of the growing chorus against rising intolerance in India, he immediately drew a cheque for the sum and returned it to the Akademi along with the memento.

It has been a fortnight since Reddy sent the cheque, but the money remains in his account. The reason: The Sahitya Akademi office in New Delhi won't touch it.

Writers from different parts of the country are sending back their awards, along with the money, but the Akademi office is merely receiving the parcels without opening them.

Speaking to TOI, Sahitya Akademi secretary K Sreenivasa Rao said, "Just because the awards are being sent to us doesn't mean we're accepting them. They are kept at our office. We're not encashing the cheques either. We can't." Rao cited the resolution passed by the Akademi's executive board on October 23 - condemning the attacks on writers and appealing to the protesters that they take back their awards - and said a copy of it had been sent to the writers.

"The executive board will have to take a decision on what to do with the mementos and cheques if the awardees don't take them back," he added.

Reddy, who won the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for his Telugu work 'Uggupalu' in 2011, had announced he was returning the award on October 15.

"I packed the memento in a box and sent it through the postal department. I also sent a cover letter with the cheque addressed to the secretary of the Akademi," he told TOI on Friday. He said he hadn't got any official acknowledgment so far.

Similarly, K Vidhmahe, who won the Akademi award for her work 'Sahityakasamlo Sagam' (essays) in 2013, also returned her memento and cheque by parcel.

As many as 40 Sahitya Akademi award-winners have announced their decision to return the awards as part of a strengthening protest against attacks on writers and rising intolerance in India at large.