Won’t Take Back Award, Intolerance Remains High: Ashok Vajpeyi

The writer said he is disappointed that some writers have relented and agreed to take back their awards.

Noted writer and poet Ashok Vajpeyi refused to take back the Sahitya Akademi award on Saturday that he had returned stating that “intolerance levels remain high” in the country.

On the sidelines of the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, Vajpeyi said:

[...]Intolerance levels remain high and widespread. Look at what happened to a Dalit student driven to suicide. This is also intolerance.

He had recently returned the DLitt honour conferred to him by the Hyderabad Central University in protest against the “anti-Dalit” attitude of authorities.

He also slammed the government for its “slow response” to the Hyderabad scholar’s suicide.

The PM emphasised the fact that a mother has lost a son but he underplayed the Dalit part of it. It must be a part of his (main) approach to the problem. I believe that this young Dalit scholar was driven to suicide. Now they are saying that there will be a judicial commission to look into his death, which is good. But all belatedly. Why have you waited six days for this event to simmer?

Ashok Vajpeyi, Writer and Poet

The Hindi poet was among the earliest of about 40 writers who had returned their awards in the past few months to the Sahitya Akademi in protest against the literary body’s silence on the killing of writer MM Kalburgi.

The Sahitya Akademi passed a resolution and wrote a letter to us stating that there was no policy of taking back awards. But in action, it is yet to prove that it is exercising that autonomy.

Ashok Vajpeyi, Writer and Poet

The writer said he is disappointed that some writers have relented and agreed to take back the awards they had returned. “It saddens me that authors are taking back awards. I feel sad. But it is their choice, I didn’t ask them to give it up and I can’t ask them not to take it back,” he said.

Terming it as an “intolerance of excellence”, Vajpeyi said:

You have all kinds of people who enjoy no respect among their peers heading national institutions. That has not disappeared. There is intolerance of minorities not merely of religion or faith but also of ideas and belief. If you say that you don’t agree with the government then you’re termed anti-national. All these levels of intolerance remain.

Ashok Vajpeyi, Writer and Poet