Press Release to protest Sahitya Academy giving awards with Samsung

SAHMAT is deeply disturbed by the institution of the Samsung-Tagore awards launched on the eve of the Republic Day. Showing no disrespect to the awardees, SAHMAT wishes to point out that the entire plan and its execution is demeaning for the Indian writers as well as for Rabindra Nath Tagore, whose name has been associated with the awards.
The association of Sahitya Akademi with these awards is totally non-transparent. The collaboration of a National publicly-funded autonomous institution like the Sahitya Akademi is not only regrettable but dangerous. The name of a prestigious institution like Sahitya Akademi

is now being used to promote and legitimize a foreign multi-national corporation whose interests are only in corporate profit. The Sahitya Akademi by this act has undermined the prestige of its own awards and has surrendered its own autonomy which has been so assiduously guarded by the litterateurs of this country over the last 50 years.
We appeal to litterateurs and all concerned to protest this action of the Sahitya Akademi, and call on the arts community to ensure the autonomy and dignity of the three national Akademi’s.

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