Gulzar Claims Returning Awards As Only Way To Protest

Famous lyricist Gulzar has came forward to back authors returning their Sahitya Akademi awards to demonstrate against killing of Kannada writer M M Kalburgi and mounting spiritual intolerance within India. The poet, who also directed film such as Aandhi and Mausam, reported that giving back the awards was the only way the authors could register the protest. He told the protest would not have taken place in case the institution recognized the incident.

TOI quoted the ‘Raajneeti’ song lyricist as saying, "The murder that has hurt us all is somewhere the fault of the system/government ... Returning the award was an act of protest. Writers don't have any other way to register their protest. We have never witnessed this kind of religious intolerance. At least, we were fearless in expressing ourselves".

He continued, "Never thought that a situation like this would come where a person's religion is asked before his name. It was never like this ... What politics can a writer do? A writer just speaks from his heart, mind and soul. They are the conscience keepers of the society. They are the keepers of the soul of the society".

Source: wordpress.com