It was the victory of saffron over red in the prestigious Sahitya Akademi elections today when noted Urdu writer Gopi Chand Narang was declared elected with a thumping majority against Jnanpith Award winner Mahashweta Devi. Narang polled 56 votes against 38 in Mahashweta Devi’s favour. This Sahitya Akademi and Ghalib award winner was the Akademi’s vice-president. Beaming with joy, Narang, who has written 56 books, said it was the victory of a genuine writer and not of the politicians. Trying to allay fears that he was being ‘‘propped up’’ by the Sangh Parivar and that he can be dictated by it, Narang said: ‘‘We do our writing in solitude. Our secularism is sustained by our literature. Why should one declare what one believes in?’’ Mahashweta Devi took the defeat in her stride. ‘‘He (Narang) has worked hard. It’s good that he has won,’’ she said. The allegation against Narang is that ever since he became Akademi vice-president, he was nursing the ambition of becoming the president and has been obliging voters with this sole aim. Namwar Singh, an Akademi old-hand, said Narang had collected 42 signatures of proposers from the old council which expired two years ago. ‘‘This means he has been working for the post at least for two years,’’ he said. Narang is also accused of singing paeans to Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, terming him as the ‘‘pride of Urdu language’’. The lobby backing Mahashweta Devi pointed fingers at Narang for accepting the post of vice-president under Joshi in the National Council for Promotion of Urdu. Similarly, He also succeeded in persuading Joshi to nominate him as the NBT member, they said. Narang hit back at his detractors by expressing surprise at how in the past 47 years, no Muslim writers like Rahi Masoom Raza, Manzoor Ehtesham and Azghar Wajahat, had ever received a Hindi award. ‘‘After all, there are good Hindi novelists and essay-writers also,’’ he said.
