Would you have returned your award to protest?

Would you have returned your award to protest?

Introduction:

Writers, poets, filmmakers have joined hands in protesting against instances of rising intolerance in our country and their weapon of protest is not the age old Anshan or the trendy social media trolling but a weapon that only prominent people can have access to – they are returning national and government accorded awards. Recently scientist P M Bhargava also joined the league when she returned the prestigious Padma Bhushan. The list has gone up fast to 44 Sahitya Akedemi Awards, 10 National Film Awards and 2 Padma Awards till date. The murder of rationalist M M Kalburgi is one of the incidents that provoked these intellectuals to start their silent way of protest. A man killed in UP over allegations that he ate beef and other incidents where leftists took to their hands to impose their moral policing over people also added fire to the protest.

However, is returning awards and honors that were accorded to them for their good work and by the love of people the right way to protest?

Yes:

1. This is a fight for freedom of speech and against growing intolerance in our country. As writers, poets and filmmakers, they should rightly consider these as their greatest tools. We cannot imagine how a writer or poet would love doing what they do best if their freedom to express what they believe in is taken away from them. How can a filmmaker continue to show us daring stories like Haider if his freedom of expression is curtailed only to the extent of appeasing those in power?

2. We cannot revoke freedom to think differently from someone else and still expect a country to take the road to development. When people are punished, murdered and endangered for having a different point of view and the government acts indifferent on the matter, it is no more a democracy to live in. Citizens and scholars have a right to ask for protection from the government when they are threatened by leftists and gets killed one unfortunate day.

3. This is a silent protests from people who have earned the highest dignity and they are doing something that would make the government think harder upon the matter and act on it. These scholars are prominent citizens of our country and they take it as their duty to show the power holders that India can no more be divided over communalism and ideology. If the government is sensible enough it should not take long for them to get the point and start taking actions against the evil creeping in our backyard.

4. This is an ideological fight in disguise of a literary fight. India has applauded rationalist writers like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin when they were fighting for their views as opposed to a particular community. Writers in Bangladesh are facing life threats and are being killed for expressing their views as opposed to the orthodox. What difference would it make if we stay silent on what is slowing brewing in India to take the shape of total intolerance for others?

5. The Sahitya Akedemi, based at Ravindra Bhavan in New Delhi is in memorial of Rabindranath Tagore who is known for his fearless literary works like the verses of “where the mind is without fear” but the Akademi was silent over the murder of Sahitya laureate. This dismayed many writers and they took it to them to return the award if their freedom of speech is not to be protected.

6. It has been 2 months since the murder of Kalburgi and police is yet to find a lead in this case. The probe started with a lot of misleads like the reason why his security was withdrawn and the missing CCTV footage that was later recovered.

No:

1. The Karnataka state government is in charge of the probe and murder investigation of the Kalburgi murder case according to our laws that cite the rules for interferences of the centre on the state. Despite this fact, the scholars and artists have gone on to blame the Modi government of being biased towards the evil deeds of the leftist wings and extremists to whom the party is allied. Returning awards is not the solution to bring in tolerance and freedom of speech.

2. Just because Kalburgi spoke against idolatry and was threatened by the ring-wing Hindutva groups often, doesn’t make them the convict of the case until evidences point in their directions. It would be wrong to be judgemental of the central government and return awards.

3. The Home Minister has been inviting these scholars and intellectuals to meet the PM and other prominent members of the centre and establish ways to stop intolerance. The government is seeking suggestions that would make the situation safer for writers and others but instead our scholars have chosen to declare PM as the sole convict for dividing people over communalism and entertaining intolerance due to the involvement of his allies.

4. Just as actor Kamal Hassan has stated, returning awards is a futile attempt to stop the growth of intolerance. The protest by these successful people have been directed towards one party which is wrong.

Politics has always used the weapon of divide and rule no party is clean of it. These intellectuals should rather debate on the rising intolerance with eminent leaders and suggest ways to curb it.

5. Whether or not these scholars should return their awards to protest against growing intolerance is entirely their own choice but they must not forget that those awards and honors were given to them with a lot of cheers and support from people whose lives and hearts their works touched. Returning awards is plainly disrespecting these people.

Conclusion:

Cases of intolerance and dying freedom of speech can take our country back to the darkness of the days when wars prevailed over communalism and fight for superiority.

These scholars, filmmakers, scientists and others who have been given highest accords are powerful and strong people who should rather be framing suggestions and debates with the government instead of choosing the silent protest form of way.

Tolerance and respect for each other can only prevail when people are willing to talk about it and not just accuse each other.

Making intolerance a political agenda and fighting for it among ourselves rather than finding out the solutions will lead only to the loss of India as a whole.