To prevent a rerun of the 2015 ‘award wapsi’ embarrassment in future, when 39 authors had returned their awards to the government, a Parliamentary panel has recommended making award-winners sign an undertaking that they would not return their awards at any stage to protest any political incident. At the time, the writers had informed the Sahitya Akademi that the reason for returning their awards was to protest the killing of M M Kalburgi, an eminent writer from Karnataka. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which tabled a report in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, noted that “such inappropriate incidents involving return of awards undermine the achievements of other awardees and also impact the overall prestige and reputation of the awards”. Noting that political issues are outside the ambit of the cultural realms and the autonomous functioning of the concerned Akademi. the report suggested that “whenever an award is given, the consent of the recipient must be taken, so that he/she does not return it because of political reasons, as it is disgraceful to the country”. The report also recommended “prior concurrence of shortlisted candidates for awards before finalisation”. The panel said a system may be put in place where an undertaking is taken from the proposed awardee, citing acceptance of the award and that the awardees cannot dishonour the award at any point of time in future. “Awards may not be given without such an undertaking. In the event that the awards are returned, the awardee shall not be considered for such award in the future,” said the panel, headed by YSR Congress’ V Vijaisai Reddy, also comprising 10 Rajya Sabha MPs and 31 Lok Sabha MPs. The report, however, also recorded dissent from one of the committee members, who opined against such an undertaking, saying, “India is a democratic country, and our Constitution has provided to every citizen the freedom of speech and expression and also the freedom to protest in any form. Returning awards is only a form of protest.” The dissenting member said the onus was on the government to look into the actual issues in the protest over which such awards have been returned. He was seconded by another member. During the hearings with the committee on ‘Functioning of National Akademis and Other Cultural Institutions’, the Ministry of Culture had informed the panel that none of the award winners returned their award while receiving it nor registered any protest when they received it. Many of the 39 writers returned their awards later. The Ministry informed that at the time, the Akademi had requested the writers to reconsider their decision, and was able to convince Rajasthani author Nand Bhardwaj to reverse his decision of returning the award. There have been no instances of awards being returned after 2015, it said, adding that organisations are advised to take proper precautionary checks before announcing awards. Between September and October 2015, around 39 people returned the awards, which comprised an amount (Rs 5,000 in the 1970s) and a citation. While some people sent their plaques, some have still not; some also sent cheques, as per the Akademi. However, it had informed them that there was no system for taking back the award, and therefore, cheques were not deposited. The Akademi also informed that many of these people have, again, associated with the Akademi and have served, sometimes, in the Jury and participated in programmes. The Committee, meanwhile, questioned the re-engagement of such awardees, who "insulted" the Akademi.
