To prevent award wapsi protest, Parliament panel suggests making recipients sign undertaking

A Parliamentary committee on Monday recommended that the Centre should make recipients of government awards sign an undertaking that they would not return them at any stage as a mark of protest.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture noted that 39 artists, including acclaimed writer Nayantara Sahgal, had in 2015 returned their awards to the Sahitya Akademi. The show of protest were widely known as ‘award wapsi’.

They accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre of suppressing criticism, targeting minorities and fanning religious tension. The artists were also protesting against the murder of rationalist MM Kalburgi on August 30, 2015.

In a report, the Parliamentary panel on Monday questioned those recipients who had returned their awards but continued their association with the Akademi after allegedly insulting it.

“Such inappropriate incidents involving return of awards undermine the achievements of other awardees and also impact the overall prestige and reputation of the awards,” said the panel headed by YSR Congress’ V Vijaisai Reddy and comprising 10 Rajya Sabha MPs and 31 Lok Sabha MPs.

The committee said that political issues are outside the ambit of the cultural realms and the autonomous functioning of institutions. Therefore, it suggested that a system should be put in place to ensure that artists and other intellectuals “cannot dishonour...

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