Aligarh: In what was termed as a ‘Buddhi Shuddhi’ for litterateurs, The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha on Sunday morning performed a mind cleansing yagya, in an attempt to bring authors “back to their senses”. The past few weeks saw a number of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award winners returning their honours to protest the growing atmosphere of intolerance in the country.This ritual was said to be a way to “knock sense” into them.
“Buddhi Shuddhi yagya was conducted so that divine powers restore some sense to our so-called intellectuals who are returning awards. This gesture is bringing shame upon the whole nation. They are guilty of desh droh (being traitors),” said national secretary Pooja Shakun Pandey of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.
She said the yagya was meant to ensure that acts that threaten national integration do not happen with impunity.
Over 40 winners of the Sahitya Akademi award have so far returned their awards, protesting the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabolkar in Maharashtra and Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, and the intolerance that led to the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri by a mob that suspected he had eaten beef and stored the meat in his refrigerator.
