The spate of return of Sahitya Akademi awards by writers all over the country was today resented by Assam Sahitya Sabha, which expressed concern over the "needless politicisation" of the autonomous institution.
The Sabha noted that instead of using the Sahitya Akademi as a medium of protest, the authors should have found some other way to express their protest.
"The Sabha is watching with serious concern protests by a section of authors on various issues. The medium and mechanism of protest by them could have been in a different way without dragging the name and prestige of the Sahitya Akademi into it," Sabha President Dr Dhrubajyoti Bora said here today.
"We uphold the right of writers to protest, but we also strongly feel that Sahitya Akademi, an autonomous national institution of authors, that is internationally reputed, should not be needlessly politicised as it can cause great harm to its autonomy and interests of Indian authors," he said.
Eminent Assamese authors Homen Borgohain and Nirupama Borgohain were among a growing number of writers who returned their awards in protest against what they said "growing intolerance" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's failure to stop it.
