Editorial

Awards Return Challenge

By The Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

You might remember Ice bucket challenge from last year, what started as a way of raising awareness and money for a disease research just turned into a fad and people all over the world just started pouring ice on themselves right and left, in India especially Bollywood celebrities who knew nothing or ever heard about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) got carried away too because they thought it was cool thing to do.

 Enter current day 2015, writers, historians, scientists, intellectuals and god knows who have got in on the award returning challenge. Why are you returning award? “Rising Intolerance” is the answer. Okay, so how did returning an award would bring down widespread level of intolerance? Rising Intolerance is the same answer again. This is today’s fad. Armchair protesters have found this new innovative way of getting themselves heard. Some of them might have genuine intentions but all of them have a sudden realization that harmony in society is at the verge of collapsing and its time to stand up to this threat by throwing away the award, give me a break or hell, give me an award.

 Yes, there have been few incidents that have shocked us as a society, everyone be it conservative, leftist, liberal or rightist thinks there have to be a full stop to this hysteria but its not a mass level rioting either. Government both center and state should rein in strongly against such hooliganism and you may ask about the awards which are suddenly in news. Well, friends, government awards in India are not always a fair game. Nepotism, favoritism and rewarding sycophancy by highest and prestigious accolades of the country is nothing new. There are lot of undeserving people out there with titles and awards they don’t deserve or qualify for but its not honorable for a government to ask back the accolades but throwing or returning an award in the name of intolerance is just a tactic to get few minutes of fame.

 R. K. Laxman drew caricature to defy Indira Gandhi, Kishore Kumar refused to sing for Congress in a protest against dictatorship. An artist, poet or writer creates an awareness, sends a message through his work. You might come across a poem which move you, inspire you or a painting that captures in its colors the simplistic beauty of life. A writer’s pen may revolutionize a whole nation. It’s for this sort of expression through which support or opposition to a cause is fostered. If these intellectuals or concerned people might have come forward with a novel way of remind people of our unity then it would have been a message, a poignant call to sober those in power but as I mentioned earlier, it’s a cool thing to do, a fad. Many of these who appear in newspapers of sacrificing their award might have an earlier score to settle or a grudge, its wise not to fellow their lead blindly. Another important fact is that where were these intellectuals previously. It’s not that communal tension just appeared out of thin air or incidents didn’t happened before then how these people became aware of their civic responsibility now.

 That being said, I think Prime Minister should not stay quiet on these issues. There is no issue so small for PM to stay silent. That was the problem with Manmohan Singh, he never spoke. Narendra Modi should speak, that is why people voted for him, for law, for order. Any group can be conservative or liberal but they don’t have the right to take the law in their hands.  PM is the head of state, he runs the country and is answerable to and for the country which is why he must speak.

One Comment

  1. wonder if returning awards is a literary move or a political game of chess
    suddenly it was Nayantara Sehgal who was probably the first(I may be wrong) to return the award and came into limelight. She hails from the Nehru clan
    Honourable, Modiji remember the old English proverb, “A stitch in time saves nine?”