After Nayantara Sahagal, poet Ashok Vajpeyi returns award

Expressing solidarity with Sahgal, Vajpeyi, a former chairperson of the Lalit Kala Adademi,  said it is high time that writers take a stand.

Nayantara Sahgal, the 88-year-old niece of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, recorded her protest against the government in a scathing statement titled "Unmaking of India". She referred to the recent mob killing of a Muslim man over rumours that he had eaten beef, and also the killings of rationalists MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

Vajpeyi  told NDTV that it was rare for a senior English writer like Shagal  to take a stand, and it needed support from the writing community.

"The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) keeps quiet. He is an eloquent Prime Minister who addresses lakhs of people, but here writers are being murdered, innocent people are being killed, his ministers are making objectionable statements...Why doesn't he shut them up?" he said.

"Why doesn't he tell the nation and the writing and creating community that the pluralism of this community will be defended at every cost? Although the government makes announcements that this would not be tolerated, that would not be tolerated ...but tolerance is there. How is it that all this has erupted now?"

Vajpeyi also expressed disappointed at the silence of Sahitya Akademi, the national academy of letters comprising writers, and said it "failed to rise to the occasion and respect its autonomy."