8 authors return awards in Maha
Some eight eminent writers from Maharashtra returned their literary awards along with the prize money to the BJPled state government on Friday. All the authors reached Mantralaya, the state headquarters, with none of the officials from the chief minister’s office ( CMO) ready to take back the awards keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter.
As a result, the litterateurs had to wait for almost three hours to return their awards, even as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was touring Nandurbar and Dhule as per his schedule.
Pradnya Pawar, Ganesh Vispute, Sambhaji Bhagat, Yeshu Patil, Harishchandra Thorat, Urmila Pawar, Vasant Patankar, Milind Malshe and Mukund Kule were among the writers who returned their awards to the government.
“We have returned all our awards received from the state government in the last 25 years. This includes cheques signed by individuals against the prize money awarded to them,” Mr Bhagat said after meeting CMO officials inside Mantralaya premises.
“I wrote a letter to the chief minister on October 13 expressing our sentiments on incidents such as ghar wapsi, love jihad, Dadri lynching. I have also expressed my intention about returning all the awards received by me and today I returned all of them along with the prize money,” Ms Pawar said.
“Now those who write are being killed ( M. M. Kalburgi) and people like Hussain Jamadar are committing suicide in frustration,” she replied when asked why they were returning awards only now and not in the past.
Referring to Kalburgi’s assassination, Mr Vispute said, “Jisne kalam chalayi usne goli khayi ( S/ he who wielded her/ his pen was shot dead).”
The writers reached CMO around 2 pm and met senior officials to return their award, but no officer was ready to accept them.
The CMO has three senior IAS officers — two principal secretaries ( Pravin Pardeshi, Milind Mhaiskar) and secretary Pravin Darade, but no one wanted to take the responsibility. CMO officials then had a meeting, which went on for more than two hours.