Bengaluru: Award-winning author Shashi&nbsp;Deshpande on Friday resigned from the Sahitya Akademi General&nbsp;Council expressing "a sense of strong disappointment" over the&nbsp;literary body's silence on the killing of Kannada writer M M&nbsp;Kalburgi.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2015/oct/Long_Silence_by_Shashi_Desp.jpg" alt="" />
In her letter to Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad&nbsp;Tiwari, the 77-year-old author said, "I do this with regret,&nbsp;andwith the hope that the Akademi will go beyond organising&nbsp;programmes, and giving prizes, to being involved with crucial&nbsp;issues that affect Indian writers' freedom to speak and&nbsp;write."&nbsp;
Deshpande, author of several novels, short stories and&nbsp;essay collections and books for children, won the Sahitya&nbsp;Akademi award for her novel "That Long Silence" in 1990. She&nbsp;was awarded the Padma Shri in 2009.
Her action comes in the wake of a parade of litterateurs&nbsp;renouncing their coveted prizes.&nbsp;
Earlier this week, celebrated writer Nayantara Sahgal and&nbsp;Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi had returned their Sahitya Akademi&nbsp;awards in protest against the "assault on right to freedom of&nbsp;both life and expression".
Hindi writer Uday Prakash was the first to return his&nbsp;Sahitya Akademi award to protest the murder of Kalburgi.
"Kalburgi lived in Dharwad. I was born there and grew up&nbsp;in the area, it is a very quiet and civilised place. I did not&nbsp;know enough of him but was deeply disturbed by the silence of&nbsp;the Akademi on his killing," Deshpande told PTI.&nbsp;She called Kalburi, a fellow Sahitya Akademi member and&nbsp;also a member of its General Council till recently, "a good&nbsp;and honest human being".
"If the Akademi, the premier literary organisation in the&nbsp;country, cannot stand up against such an act of violence&nbsp;against a writer, if the Akademi remains silent about this&nbsp;attack on one of its own, what hope do we have of fighting the&nbsp;growing intolerance in our country? A few tame condolence&nbsp;meetings here and there for a member of our community cannot&nbsp;serve the purpose," Deshpande said in her letter.
Akademi chairperson Tiwari had earlier said that authors&nbsp;should "adopt a different way to protest" and not politicise&nbsp;the autonomous body and make it deviate from its primary task&nbsp;of engaging in translation of books into different languages,&nbsp;giving awards, holding seminars and workshops to further&nbsp;literary causes.
Alleging that silence was a form of abetment, Deshpande&nbsp;said the Sahitya Akademi "should speak for the large community&nbsp;of Indian writers, must stand up and protest the murder of&nbsp;Professor Kalburgi and all such acts of violent intolerance".&nbsp;
"Sadly, it has become increasingly important to reaffirm&nbsp;that difference of opinion cannot be ended with a bullet; that&nbsp;discussion and debate are the only way a civilised society&nbsp;resolves issues. It has also become clear that writers, who&nbsp;are supposed to be the conscience-keepers of society, are no&nbsp;longer considered intellectual leaders; their voices no longer&nbsp;matter."
Noting that perhaps it is the "right time for writers to&nbsp;reclaim their voices", she said there was a need for a&nbsp;community of voices, and this is where the Akademi could serve&nbsp;its purpose and play an important role.
"It could initiate and provide space for discussion and&nbsp;debate in public life. It could stand up for the rights of&nbsp;writers to speak and write without fear; this is a truth all&nbsp;political parties in a democracy are supposed to believe in,"&nbsp;she said.

Award-winning author Shashi&nbsp;Deshpande on Friday resigned from the Sahitya Akademi General&nbsp;Council expressing "a sense of strong disappointment" over the&nbsp;literary body's silence on the killing of Kannada writer M M&nbsp;Kalburgi

Writer Shashi Deshpande resigns from Sahitya Akademi panel in protest

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Writer Shashi Deshpande resigns from Sahitya Akademi panel in protest

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