After Sahitya award, Ashok Vajpeyi returns D.Lit to protest Dalit student's suicide

January 19, 2016 17:40

JUST IN: Noted writer Ashok Vajpeyi decides to return D.Lit given to him by Hyderabad University protesting Rohith Vemula's death.He said he was protesting the university's 'anti-Dalit attitude'.

In October, the poet had also returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his silence on incidents of violence growing out of intolerance.

"It is high time that writers take a stand," Vajpeyi, a former chairperson of the Lalit Kala Akademi, had said.

The 74-year-old Hindi poet, essayist and literary-cultural critic had returned the Sahitya Akademi award saying he disapproved of the statements of politicians that he said "belittled the 'multi-cultural and multi-religious' fabric of the country".

"There are the comments made by the culture minister about renaming Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam road. He (Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma) says Kalam was a great nationalist despite being a Muslim. These kinds of statements belittle the multi-cultural and multi-religious fabric of the country....What can writers do but protest," he had said, while returning the Sahitya award.

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