"AWARD WAPSI"
- A New Form of Protest against MATHLABHI NATIONAL AWARDS
Indian writers protest against government silence on violence ???? (Wiki)
The Indian leftwing writers protest against government silence on violence was a famous protest in India. Starting from the beginning of September 2015, some disgruntled writers and poets in India had started returning the Sahitya Akademi Award to protest the incidents of so-called communal violence in India.They believed that there was rising intolerance in the country under the present central government (NDA Alliance). Some well-known writers and poets had also resigned their posts in the General Council of the country's top literary body, saying that they were shocked at the level of intolerance on freedom of speech and expression. This incident is also referred to as Award Wapsi and the individuals returning the awards are widely referred as Award Wapsi Gang.
Writer Uday Prakash a passionate communist party member, who later lost interest in political ideology, was the first to return the award on September 4, 2015, protesting against the murder of MM Kalburgi. Writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi followed Prakash in protesting the murders of activists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. They also came out against the shocking Dadri incident, in which a mob lynched a Muslim man in Greater Noida over rumours of eating and storing beef.
Writer Uday Prakash a passionate communist party member, who later lost interest in political ideology, was the first to return the award on September 4, 2015, protesting against the murder of MM Kalburgi. Writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi followed Prakash in protesting the murders of activists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. They also came out against the shocking Dadri incident, in which a mob lynched a Muslim man in Greater Noida over rumours of eating and storing beef.
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12 filmmakers return national awards, protest ‘growing intolerance’
Hindustan Times
The filmmakers’ decision mirrors that of a string of writers and poets who recently gave back awards to voice their disapproval of what they said was an environment of intolerance and gagging of dissent in the country.
Updated on Oct 29, 2015 09:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times |
The filmmakers’ decision mirrors that of a string of writers and poets who recently gave back awards to voice their disapproval of what they said was an environment of intolerance and gagging of dissent in the country.
Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan shows his National Award with Dibakar Banerjee on his left and Paresh Kamdar on right.(Arijit Sen/HT Photo)
Updated on Oct 29, 2015 09:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times |
By Humaira Ansari, Mumbai
Twelve filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan, returned their national awards on Wednesday to protest “growing intolerance in the country” and to express solidarity with the FTII students.
The filmmakers’ decision mirrors that of a string of writers and poets who recently gave back awards to voice their disapproval of what they said was an environment of intolerance and gagging of dissent in the country.
The move came hours after the Film and Television Institute of India students, striking against the “political appointment” of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman, called off their 139-day-old agitation. They, however, said peaceful demonstrations would continue.
“Our past glory is being cited as the reason for many acts and deeds today. I feel that glory must be spelled out. To me, that glory was an education system that encouraged questioning, argument, debate and a give and take of ideas,” Banerjee, honoured for the popular film Khosla Ka Ghosla, said, invoking the guru-shishya tradition.
Returning the award was not easy, he said. “... I’m here to draw attention of citizens of India, if they are listening, if they care, and if they think I am one of them and not a privileged outsider,” he said.
Read: Now, six more writers return Sahitya Akademi awards
Claiming that the decision was not politically motivated, the filmmaker said, it was “motivated by my conscience... I am returning it to try and raise public attention.”
Patwardhar said he was “more afraid today than during the Emergency days, because now there are roving gangs looking to do violence against anyone who speaks out”.
Twelve filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan, returned their national awards on Wednesday to protest “growing intolerance in the country” and to express solidarity with the FTII students.
The filmmakers’ decision mirrors that of a string of writers and poets who recently gave back awards to voice their disapproval of what they said was an environment of intolerance and gagging of dissent in the country.
The move came hours after the Film and Television Institute of India students, striking against the “political appointment” of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman, called off their 139-day-old agitation. They, however, said peaceful demonstrations would continue.
“Our past glory is being cited as the reason for many acts and deeds today. I feel that glory must be spelled out. To me, that glory was an education system that encouraged questioning, argument, debate and a give and take of ideas,” Banerjee, honoured for the popular film Khosla Ka Ghosla, said, invoking the guru-shishya tradition.
Returning the award was not easy, he said. “... I’m here to draw attention of citizens of India, if they are listening, if they care, and if they think I am one of them and not a privileged outsider,” he said.
Read: Now, six more writers return Sahitya Akademi awards
Claiming that the decision was not politically motivated, the filmmaker said, it was “motivated by my conscience... I am returning it to try and raise public attention.”
Patwardhar said he was “more afraid today than during the Emergency days, because now there are roving gangs looking to do violence against anyone who speaks out”.
(From left ) Filmmakers Kirti Nakhwa, Harshavardhan Kulkarni, Nishtha Jain, Dibakar Banerjee, Anand Patwardhan and Paresh Kamdar return their National Awards in protest against the government at a press conference in Mumbai. (PTI)
“On one side is the secular path that our freedom fighters laid out for us. On the other hand, the path towards majoritarian fascism that the present regime seems bent upon. The early warning signs are unmistakable,” he said.
“It is the duty of all thinking citizens to speak out before it becomes too late.” Honoured for her 2014 documentary Gulaabi Gang, Nishtha Jain said she was protesting “a fascist state in the making”.
She was also giving up the award in the memory of slain rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, the FTII alumnus said, also mentioning Mohammed Ikhlaq killed on rumours of eating beef and the two Dalit children allegedly burnt alive by upper-caste men in Haryana.
The others who gave back the honours were Paresh Kamdar, Kirti Nakhwa, Hari Nair, Rakesh Sharma, Indraneel Lahiri, Lipika Singh Darai, Pratik Vats, Harshavardhan Kulkarni and Vikrant Pawar.
“On one side is the secular path that our freedom fighters laid out for us. On the other hand, the path towards majoritarian fascism that the present regime seems bent upon. The early warning signs are unmistakable,” he said.
“It is the duty of all thinking citizens to speak out before it becomes too late.” Honoured for her 2014 documentary Gulaabi Gang, Nishtha Jain said she was protesting “a fascist state in the making”.
She was also giving up the award in the memory of slain rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, the FTII alumnus said, also mentioning Mohammed Ikhlaq killed on rumours of eating beef and the two Dalit children allegedly burnt alive by upper-caste men in Haryana.
The others who gave back the honours were Paresh Kamdar, Kirti Nakhwa, Hari Nair, Rakesh Sharma, Indraneel Lahiri, Lipika Singh Darai, Pratik Vats, Harshavardhan Kulkarni and Vikrant Pawar.
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Controversy rages as two more return Padma awards
Legendary singer Sandhya Mukherjee and tabla exponent Anindya Chatterjee refused the awards over the stature being accorded to them.
Former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused to accept the Padma Bhushan on Tuesday (FILE)
Published on Jan 27, 2022
By. HT Correspondent
A day after former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused one of India’s highest civilian awards, legendary singer Sandhya Mukherjee and tabla exponent Anindya Chatterjee too refused the awards, although their refusal, unlike Bhattacharjee’s, which was prompted by a seeming disdain for state-awards, has more to do with the stature of the award.
Among the awards announced on January 25 was a Padma Shri , India’s fourth-highest civilian honour to 90-year-old Sandhya Mukherjee whose career spans over 70 years. The student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Mukherjee has sung thousands of songs for Indian cinema and produced albums of modern, classical and semi-classical music. She received the national award in 1970 for play-back singing.
Mukherjee’s relatives told the media that she expressed her refusal when an official called her on Tuesday afternoon, telling him that accepting the Padma Shri would be demeaning for her.
She found support on Wednesday, but the matter has acquired distinctly political overtones.
“This was intentionally done to insult her because she is a Bengali. A few people, who are not even fit to be Sandhya Mukherjee’s students, have been awarded the Padma Bhushan. I wish I could leave this country because the government has no respect for its people,” said singer and former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Parliament member Suman Chatterjee who won the national award a few years ago.
“The Centre has proved that it is run by people who have no idea about those being honoured. The Centre would have felt honoured had it chosen the right award for Mukherjee,” added writer Abul Bashar.
The same allegation was made by Anindya Chatterjee on Tuesday. He said he was awarded the Padma Shri by people who know nothing about him or his career.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused to accept the Padma Bhushan (India’s third highest civilian honour) on Tuesday itself, saying in a statement: “I do not know anything about the Padma Bhushan award. Nobody said anything to me about this. If I have been given the award then I refuse it. ”
Among the 17 people selected for the Padma Bhushan, 77-year-old Bhattacharjee and veteran actor Victor Banerjee were the only ones listed as Bengal residents. Another Padma Bhushan recipient, Hindustani classical singer Rashid Khan, was listed as a resident of Uttar Pradesh, where he was born, although he has been living in Kolkata since the age of 10. “This is an honour for Bengal,” Khan told the media.
But he too commiserated with Mukherjee
“The awardees should be selected judiciously. Sandhya Didi (elder sister) did the right thing. I felt bad for her” Khan told a television channel on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that the refusals were an expression of the anti-Centre stance of Bengal’s people.
“People of Bengal always seem to believe that they are not a part of India. This was prevalent during the Left Front era and things have not changed during the TMC regime. What is the harm in accepting an award from the government? The TMC is doing politics over the Padma awards,” said BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.
Countering the BJP, the TMC alleged that politics influenced the selection process.
“Why was Bhattacharjee awarded the Padma Bhushan in a year when former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, whose tenure witnessed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, was honoured posthumously? This is a political strategy to keep the CPI(M) in good humour because the BJP has grown in Bengal with Left votes,” said TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.
The Congress and CPI(M) targeted the BJP as well.
“I feel that Bhattacharjee did not want to be honoured by a government that has created divisions among people of this nation,” said Congress Rajya Sabha member and former state president Pradip Bhattacharya even as the CPI(M) maintained that its leaders never accept such awards.
“By refusing the awards, Sandhya Mukherjee and Anindya Chatterjee have brought more honour upon themselves. The Centre’s decision proves that the awardees are chosen at random, not through an evaluation of their life and work,” said CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
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Buddhadeb Bhattacharya declined Padma Bhushan and Ghulam Nabi Azad drew jibes from Congress leaders for accepting the award from Modi govt. But such controversies are not new.
MOUSHUMI DAS GUPTA
29 January, 2022 12:33 pm IST
File image of the Padma Vibhushan award | Wikimedia CommonsThe Padma Awards 2022 kept up with its decade-old tradition — of getting mired in unwarranted controversy soon after the Ministry of Home Affairs came out with the list of awardees.
And just like before, this year too the controversy had a distinct political colour.
The Narendra Modi government, on the eve of the 73rd Republic Day, announced the Padma awardees for 2022. Among those selected for Padma Bhushan were former CPI(M) politburo member and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and senior Congress leader and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The names raised eyebrows, and the reaction was instant. While the MHA said that Bhattacharya’s wife was informed about the award since he was unwell and has been in and out of hospital in the past few years, the CPI(M) was first caught off guard. But it gathered its wits soon and managed to get a statement from Bhattacharya declining the award.
Azad, on the other hand, thanked the government for recognising the sacrifices of a Congressman, immediately fuelling rumour that he could be the next one to jump ship and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Many of his senior party colleagues were unsparing in attacking him. After Bhattacharya declined the award, Congress leader and Azad’s colleague in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Right thing to do. He wants to be Azad not Ghulam.”
Ramesh also tweeted a paragraph from his book Intertwined Lives: PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi on how one of the most powerful bureaucrats in Gandhi’s PMO was offered Padma Vibhushan but declined on the ground that “accepting an award for work done somehow causes an inexplicable discomfort to me.”
Among his other colleagues, M. Veerappa Moily also criticised Azad for accepting the award and accused the Modi government of bestowing the honour for political reasons.
But as the history of Padma awards goes, Bhattacharya and Azad will not be the last to get mired in such controversies. For long, critics have questioned the highly politicised award and its relevance in today’s day and time.
That is why Padma awards is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The Padma awards, announced annually on the eve of Republic Day, are one of the highest civilian awards instituted in 1954. The awards are given in three categories – Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).
The names raised eyebrows, and the reaction was instant. While the MHA said that Bhattacharya’s wife was informed about the award since he was unwell and has been in and out of hospital in the past few years, the CPI(M) was first caught off guard. But it gathered its wits soon and managed to get a statement from Bhattacharya declining the award.
Azad, on the other hand, thanked the government for recognising the sacrifices of a Congressman, immediately fuelling rumour that he could be the next one to jump ship and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Many of his senior party colleagues were unsparing in attacking him. After Bhattacharya declined the award, Congress leader and Azad’s colleague in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Right thing to do. He wants to be Azad not Ghulam.”
Ramesh also tweeted a paragraph from his book Intertwined Lives: PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi on how one of the most powerful bureaucrats in Gandhi’s PMO was offered Padma Vibhushan but declined on the ground that “accepting an award for work done somehow causes an inexplicable discomfort to me.”
Among his other colleagues, M. Veerappa Moily also criticised Azad for accepting the award and accused the Modi government of bestowing the honour for political reasons.
But as the history of Padma awards goes, Bhattacharya and Azad will not be the last to get mired in such controversies. For long, critics have questioned the highly politicised award and its relevance in today’s day and time.
That is why Padma awards is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The Padma awards, announced annually on the eve of Republic Day, are one of the highest civilian awards instituted in 1954. The awards are given in three categories – Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).
The awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the prime minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.
Also read: This Padma Shri awardee could not bury his dead son. It broke his heart & gave him a mission
Also read: This Padma Shri awardee could not bury his dead son. It broke his heart & gave him a mission
NDA sailing the same boat as UPA
It would be naive to assume that Padma awards became politicised only after the Modi government came to power. The awards courted equal controversy during the UPA regime too.
One of the most controversial inclusion in recent years was in 2010 when US-based hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, whose name had cropped up in an alleged bank fraud case in India, was chosen for Padma Bhushan for his apparent lobbying with US senators to support the India-US nuclear deal.
Chatwal’s inclusion drew a lot of public outcry with then-leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde shooting off a letter to the prime minister demanding that the award be withdrawn.
Again in 2011, when the Manmohan Singh government chose Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his national security advisor, for Padma Vibhushan, it drew flak from critics. Mishra was apparently rewarded for supporting the UPA government on the nuclear deal.
It’s not just prominent hoteliers and policy wonks considered close to the ruling dispensation whom the governments have rewarded. Bollywood celebrities are the other prominent recipients of Padma awards, more specifically the Padma Shri.
And their inclusion invariably triggered a controversy, irrespective of the political dispensation that conferred the awards on them. From Akshay Kumar (2009) and Saif Ali Khan (2010) to Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, and Adnan Sami (2020), many of them have been rewarded, most recently by the Modi government.
Equally long is the list of those who have refused the awards.
In 1992, when the Congress-led Narasimha Rao government chose veteran CPI(M) leader and Kerala’s first chief minister, EMS Namboodiripad, for the Padma Vibhushan, the latter declined to accept.
Several others have declined the Padma honour. Former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal refused the award in 2020 in protest against the farm laws. Historian Romila Thapar in 2005 declined saying she doesn’t accept “state awards”, and noted author Khushwant Singh returned his Padma Bhushan in 1984 to protest the Army’s Operation Blue Star. Singh was, however, conferred Padma Vibhushan again, posthumously in 2007.
Sometimes, an individual refused simply because they felt the award did not do justice to their work or stature. Noted scriptwriter Salim Khan of Sholay refused Padma Shri in 2015 and 90-year-old singer Sandhya Mukherjee did it this year.
Has the Padma award lost its sheen?
Critics have long questioned the relevance of Padma awards.
In a column in The Week, Sanjaya Baru, the former media advisor to PM Manmohan Singh, wrote that he became increasingly cynical about Padma awards after observing the kind of lobbying that used to go on.
“I cannot believe it has ceased completely. In the end one must ask what national purpose such national awards serve. Apart from merely recognising good work, or gratifying friends and influencing people, the selectors must choose such individuals for these awards who may be regarded as national icons,” he wrote in a January 2021 column ‘Burnishing the Padmas’.
Bestowing an award like the Padma should ideally be an occasion to celebrate our icons, performers and artists, those who have achieved extraordinary success and brought cheer to millions of people through their achievement. Instead, invariably, we cut a sorry figure every year on the eve of Republic Day. The awards end up triggering some controversy or the other, embarrassing us.
It will continue to be so till the time the Padma awards are stopped being used as a political tool. It is time to rethink the award and restore its honour – free of political patronage, nepotism, and lobbying.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)
Critics have long questioned the relevance of Padma awards.
In a column in The Week, Sanjaya Baru, the former media advisor to PM Manmohan Singh, wrote that he became increasingly cynical about Padma awards after observing the kind of lobbying that used to go on.
“I cannot believe it has ceased completely. In the end one must ask what national purpose such national awards serve. Apart from merely recognising good work, or gratifying friends and influencing people, the selectors must choose such individuals for these awards who may be regarded as national icons,” he wrote in a January 2021 column ‘Burnishing the Padmas’.
Bestowing an award like the Padma should ideally be an occasion to celebrate our icons, performers and artists, those who have achieved extraordinary success and brought cheer to millions of people through their achievement. Instead, invariably, we cut a sorry figure every year on the eve of Republic Day. The awards end up triggering some controversy or the other, embarrassing us.
It will continue to be so till the time the Padma awards are stopped being used as a political tool. It is time to rethink the award and restore its honour – free of political patronage, nepotism, and lobbying.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)
