Parliamentary panel suggests recipient consent so awards of cultural academies are not returned for political reasons

PTI, Jul 25, 2023, 5:05 PM IST

Representative image (Credit: Satdeep Gill via Wikimedia Commons)

New Delhi: Emphasising that Sahitya Akademi or other cultural academies are ”apolitical organisations”, a parliamentary panel has suggested that whenever any award is given by them, the consent of the recipient must be taken so that he or she does not return it because of ”political reasons”.

The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said this in a report tabled in both houses of Parliament on Monday.

In the event that the awards are returned, the awardee ”shall not be considered” for such an award in the future, the panel said in its observations.

In its ”Three Hundred Fifty First Report on ‘Functioning of National Akademis and other Cultural Institutions’, the panel underlined that return of such awards is ”disgraceful to the country”.

”Such inappropriate incidents involving the return of awards undermine the achievements of the other awardees and also impact the overall prestige and reputation of the awards,” the panel said.

The committee observed that the awards given by each Akademi continue to be top honours for an artiste in India. ”The Committee emphasises that Sahitya Akademi or other Akademis are apolitical organisations. There is no place for politics,” according to a statement issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on the report.

”The Committee, therefore, suggests that whenever an award is given, the consent of the recipient must be taken, so that he/she does not return it because of political reasons; as it is disgraceful to the country,” it said.

The committee recommended ”prior concurrence of short-listed candidates for awards before finalisation”, the statement said, quoting the report.

”A system may be put in place where an undertaking is taken from the proposed awardee citing acceptance of the award and that the awardees cannot dishonour the award at any point of time in future. Awards may not be given without such an undertaking. In the event that the awards are returned, the awardee shall not be considered for such an award in the future,” the panel said.

The committee noted the instances of recipients of awards, given by Akademis (such as Sahitya Akademi Awards), returning their awards in protest of certain political issues which are ”outside the ambit of the cultural realms and the autonomous functioning of the concerned Akademi”, the statement said.

A member of the committee, however, ”opined against the view” that artists, authors and other intellectuals and performers who have been recommended for awards must sign a commitment that they will not return the awards as a form of protest at any point in the future before they are able to receive it, it said.

”He was of the view that India is a democratic country, and our Constitution has provided to every citizen the freedom of speech and expression and also the freedom to protest in any form. Returning of awards is only a form of protest,” the statement said.

The member added that the committee must ”strongly recommend to the government to look into the actual issues in protest of which such awards have been returned and work towards resolving them. He was seconded by another Member,” it added.

The committee ”questioned the re-engagement of such awardees who joined the Akademi after insulting it”. Such inappropriate incidents involving the return of awards undermine the achievements of other awardees and also impact the overall prestige and reputation of the awards, the statement said.

”The Member again submitted that the Akademis and the other Institutions should continue to work together with these artists and not shun them,” it added, quoting the report.

In February 2017, the Lok Sabha was informed that 39 writers had returned their Sahitya Akademi awards in the preceding three years claiming that the Akademi ”kept silent” when their freedom of expression was ”under attack”.

The then Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma had said in a written reply.

There was a spurt in writers returning their awards to the Akademi in the backdrop of the institution’s ”silence” on the murder of fellow writer M M Kalburgi as well against the ”communal” atmosphere in the country following the Dadri lynching incident of 2015.

Shama in his reply had also said that the Akademi had convened a special Executive Board meeting on October 23, 2015 and December 12, 2015 in which resolution was passed requesting the writers to reconsider their decision.