There has been a spate of eminent personalities declining their awards in India in recent history. The latest which has instigated this article is the disrespectful gesture by famed writer and social activist Arundhati Roy.

Arundhati Roy scurries after headlines and this must have seemed the appropriate moment to strike a national controversy. So when awarded for her collection of speeches in the form of a book The Algebra of Infinite Justice, Roy declined the prize with the utmost impudence.

Of course Roy’s excuse is that it was to snub the government which according to her is ruling very unwisely and is anti-poor and pro-corporate, something that America is constantly accused of. All that she accuses the government of are true, for instance, police firing at tribals and workers who protest against companies instinctively degrades a democracy.

But to refuse an award from a cultural body, that too as reputed as the Sahitya Akademi, simply because it is funded by the govt. and to thereby snub the govt. is definitely a devious link that my unsophisticated brain is unable to comprehend.

In the process, Arundhati Roy has ended up shaming all the reputed personalities that represent the Sahitya Akademi. After much deliberations they must have decided on conferring the award on Roy; but alas, how were they to know that they had chosen the most unbefitting person for the title!

Arundhati Roy has expressed utter disregard to the eminent jury and to the board and members of Sahitya Akademi, but she has only highlighted a growing trend amongst Indian award winners of an unhealthy and snobbish trend to refuse cultural awards as a mode of registering their protest against the government.

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