The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday sent a message to the literary icons returning the Sahitya Akademi awards, saying that their form of protest was not practical, as the awards given to them were by their own fraternity and added that if they have an issue they must raise it with the government.
"Dissent is part of democracy and one cannot criticise it, but at the same time dissent needs to be understood in the right context. Now to those who are rejecting the Akademi awards, I want to say that the awards have not been bestowed by the government but by their own fraternity. So why reject it?," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told ANI.
He asserted that by returning the awards the writers were insulting the Sahitya Akademi board and that if they have an issue, they must raise it with the government.
"There are other ways to dissent as part of the democracy. You may not agree with the government policy, but to make an ideological propaganda that whatever terrible is happening is because of the Modi government, that is not a right way to analyse it," Singh added.
The BJP leader also said that at the end of the day, law and order was a state subject and if any particular political party was creating such a problem in the state, the government could not be blamed.
"The Maharashtra Government of the BJP is very upfront. They have taken action against those who have shown intolerance. But at the same time, it cannot be attributed to the BJP or to the Central Government. That's a very wrong perception because then it reflects ideological propaganda," Singh said.
Joining the chorus of writers protesting against 'growing intolerance', Bengali writer Mandakranta Sen also returned her Sahitya Akademi award.
"There are some more prevailing reasons going on in our country like fundamentalism, communalism, and intolerance towards other castes. Writers write for human beings, when their voices are choked, words of whole nation are being choked," Sen told ANI.
