Ashok Vajpeyi too returns Sahitya Akademi award

New Delhi: There's another one added to the list. Hindi poet and literary critic Ashok Vajpeyi has decided to return his Sahitya Akademi award, reacting to government's apathy in dealing with the murders of Kannada writer and Sahitya Akademi winner M M Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

The 74 year-old former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman is the third one to return this award after Hindi litterateur Uday Prakash and English writer Nayantara Sahgal.

Vajpeyi strongly condemned the murders and also the suppression of freedom of speech.

In a report by Times of India, Vajpeyi is quoted as saying, “Today we are witnessing assault on the right to freedom, expression of life.”

He was upset that neither Narendra Modi nor Sahitya Akademi came forward to condemn the incidents.