The Farce of Returning National Awards; An Orchestrated Event?
Last Saturday I was at the Singapore Club( I am on an official visit ) and had an animated discussion with an old friend, a member of the service fraternity, an English Major settled in Singapore.
Over glasses of beer the Major mentioned that many writers and poets were returning the awards bestowed on them by the Indian government, on the plea that with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs, intolerance had crept in the Indian society. He wondered what was the motive as he could not recollect a single instance over a 100 years where an award bestowed on an individual for excellence was returned in England. I asked him as to what he felt about all these incidents. He had a crisp answer and clearly articulated" Man, this is an orchestrated demand and these men do not have the honor of the Indian nation in mind".
This is the opinion of a foreignor, who is not attached to any political party or system in India. I began a look at history and could not find a single instance of an award being returned in any country. The fact is the writers and so called men of letters did a great disservice to India by returning awards, bestowed on them.
I further had a look at some of the awardees and was shocked at what came before me. Take the case of Ms Leela Samson. At one time she headed 3 prestigious centres of creative art simultaneously- Kalakshetra Foundation, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Central Board of Film Certification. She was evicted from all these 3 appointments one by one and had an axe to grind. She was a protege of the Congress party.
Before I write anything further I will quote Kerala's renowned lady litterateur P Valsala who commented that the awards were returned by those who bought them and there is big politics behind this drama.
I am also reminded of watching the Urdu poet Munnawar Rana holding a blank cheque before the TV camera and grandly announcing that he was "ready" to return the monetary benefit that came with the reward. I ask, is this the way to return a monetary benefit? why could not this man just post the cheque to the Sahitiya Kala Akademi? This man also announced that he was ashamed to go to Pakistan after the killing of a Muslim in Dadri in UP. I wonder whether Rana felt any sense of shame when Hindus who came on a visit to India refused to go back to Pakistan as they felt insecure and scared? Obviously not as Rana was playing a game with his political masters in the back.
The fact is that all the awardees who have returned the awards have not returned the monetary compensation that came with the award. This shows the hollow nature of the protest movement and is a clear sign that all this is just smoke and there is an invisible hand behind this entire drama of returning awards.
Take the case of Ganesh Devy, who returned his Sahitya Akademi award. This man recieved funds to the tune of 12 crores of which the Ford foundation played a big part. After the government tightened the screws on these foundations Devy woke up to "intolerence" in Indian society after the BJP came to power.
The real reason for returning the awards is something else and not the so called intolerance seen by them. Look at the film Industry, this is completely dominated by the Mafia from Pakistan and Dubai. This was brought out by RN Singh yesterday on prime time on the IBN news channel. RN Singh is a senior officer ( now retired ) from the Indian Intelligence Bureau. He mentioned the case of one film superstar who thought it fit to articulate that India was heading towards an intolerant society. A per Singh, this same Super Star was dancing at the party of the Don, Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai after the Mumbai blasts.
What can you expect? The fact is as brought out by Chetan Bhagat in his address at Indore on 3 November that had Modi and Amit Shah been from Doon School, such things like returning of awards would not have happened. In a way, I think Bhagat is correct as the so called men of letters are chagrined that their mentor the Congress party is defeated , nay decimated by a man who is not 'educated' in the classical sense. The Congress party and their ilk have not been able to stomach their complete rout in in the 2014 election, hence resort to drama of returning awards. Prestige of the country be dammed.
I hope readers can see through the entire game. It is a curse of history that Nehru and the Congress ( with blessings of Gandhi) came to power after 1947 and reduced the state to an appeaser of minorities. I have yet to understand how the death of one Muslim and 3 rationalists has prompted these pseudo secular writers to retrn their awards. Not one writer returned any award when 10,000 Sikhs were butchered in Delhi, with the Congress party in power. Reports now suggest that orders for the massacre was given by the highest authority of the Congress party.
Retrning awards is self defeating and this has polarized Indian society, not Narendra Modi. These men are just pseudo secular and have insulted the Indian people by returning the awards. I do believe that there is always light at the end of the tunnel and these men will have to pay for this sin of insulting the Indian nation.
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