Friday, November 6, 2015

War of Award Wapsi heats up !

War of Award Wapsi heats up !

NEW DELHI/ Mumbai: A group of writers, academicians and artists including Kannada writer S L Bhairappa on Thursday, 5th Decemeber 2015, came in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Governement even as 24 Film makers returned their National Awards in support of Award Wapasi. Meanwhile Writer-activist Arundhati Roy also declared that she was returning the national award.

New Delhi Report: A group of writers, academicians and artistes on Thursday came out in support of the Narendra Modi government and dismissed the protests over alleged rising intolerance as "much ado" about the declining clout of a "pampered section" which was now targeting the Prime Minister. 

Hitting out at the intellectuals attacking the Centre over "the climate of intolerance", they said a section of nation's intelligentsia was dismayed by Narendra Modi's victory in the Lok Sabha polls and "failure in the elections is now sought to be avenged by other means".

Indian Council for Cultural Relations President Lokesh Chandra, author S L Bhyrappa, Kapil Kapoor, former pro-vice chancellor, JNU, Dilip K Chakrabarti, professor emeritus University of Cambridge and ICHR member and K Gopinath of IISC are among 36 intellectuals who lent their support to the BJP-led government in a statement and lashed out at the protesters.

MUMBAI Report:  Kundan Shah, the maker of the iconic film 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron', and Saeed Mirza, were among the 24 filmmakers who returned their National Awards today and added their voice to what has come to be known as the "Award Wapsi" protest against "rising intolerance".

"Not to speak out would be a crime. We are speaking out to reclaim the soul and spirit of this land," Saeed Mirza said.

"We are not against the BJP, we have protested against the Congress too," said Mr Shah.

Writer-activist Arundhati Roy also declared that she was returning the national award she received for a 1989 film. "If we do not have the right to speak freely, we will turn into a society that suffers from intellectual malnutrition, a nation of fools," she wrote in an article in The Indian Express.

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