The Hindu : Punitive action unlikely against Sahitya Akademi secretary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003

National

National

Punitive action unlikely against Sahitya Akademi secretary

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI FEB. 11. Despite pressure from the RSS, the Union Culture Ministry is apparently not in favour of taking punitive action against the Sahitya Akademi secretary, K. Satchidanandan, who has been in the eye of a storm for penning a poem against the Gujarat carnage and voicing concern about the situation in the State.

The Ministry is learnt to have taken this view in light of the fact that the secretary is governed by Akademi rules and not Government Service Rules. The secretary — who is the principal executive officer of the Akademi — is appointed by the Executive Board which also decides the tenure, and terms and conditions of the office. Also, any intervention from the Government would be construed as an effort to tamper with the autonomy of the Akademi; something that writers associated with the National Academy of Writers have guarded fiercely over the years.

Besides, there is a view that whatever Mr. Satchidanandan had written in his poem -- which the RSS found objectionable — he had done so in his capacity as a poet which was what gave him the credentials to become the secretary of the Akademi.

Upset by the "anti-establishment" position he took on Gujarat in his poem written in Malayalam, Kerala-based cultural activists with RSS leanings had submitted a memorandum to the Culture Minister, Jagmohan, sometime ago, demanding action against Mr. Satchidanandan. Other counts on which they demanded action against him included his being signatory to a statement by writers against the RSS in Kerala, and his association with "secular" activists on the Gujarat issue.

A similar memorandum is also learnt to have been submitted to the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, after which he wrote to Mr. Jagmohan making out a case for cleansing the Akademis under the Ministry of "Leftists". In his letter, Mr. Naidu had also asked the Ministry to revoke its decision to transfer the scheme of award of senior/junior fellowships to outstanding artists/writers to the three Akademis under it — Lalit Kala Akademi, Sangeet Natak Akademi besides Sahitya Akademi.

This issue continues to be under review by the Ministry; particularly because letters have been received from several quarters articulating the view that the Ministry ought to retain the right to administer the fellowships. While maintaining that the Akademis would administer the fellowships this year, officials in the Ministry did not rule out a review of its earlier decision.

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