Writers support controversial Akademi appointee

New Delhi, May 17 (UNI) The controversial appointment of new Sahitya Akademi Secretary A Krishna Murthy to replace Malayalam poet K Satchidanandan took a new turn today with a group of eminent writers and poets led by Gulzar coming out in his support.

Tamil writer Gulzar and Jnanpith winner D Jayakanthan and several General Council members of the Akademi have signed a memorandum seeking the confirmation of Mr Murthy, who is the Regional Secretary of the Akademi in Bangalore.

The 91 signatories to the memorandum, who include several Akademi winners and Akademi Fellows like Hindi litterateur Vijayadan Detha and Telugu writer Dr Gunturu Shsendra Sharma, say the objection of the Union Culture Ministry to the appointment is without basis.

''We the following writers of India are extremely pained at the campaign of vilification and character assassination launched against Sri A Krishna Murthy, the Regional Secretary of Sahitya Akademi whom the statutory selection committee has unanimously selected for the post of Secretary, Sahitya Akademi,'' begins the memorandum.

''We also urge the Ministry of Culture, Government of India to issue clearance for the post since an august Institution like Sahitya Akademi cannot function even for a day without the Secretary, as he is the Chief Executive of the Akademi,'' it says.

According to the signatories, Mr Murthy was selected as the Regional Secretary in early 90s by the then President of the Sahitya Akademi Professor V K Gokak, one of the stalwarts of Indian literature.

The memorandum says Mr Murthy is an ''important writer'' in Kannada with seven publications to his credit, apart from number of articles on literature and culture.

Mr Murthy's novel 'Neeru Mattu Preethi', it says, has won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award and he is the winner of Kempegowda Award and S R Patil Award in Karnataka.

It further says his appointment as Secretary of the Akademi was made through a ''democratic process'' by a selection committee consisting of Prof Bholabhai Patel, a well known Gujarati writer, Prof Chandrasekhar Kambar, eminent playwright and poet in Kannada and Prof Udayanarayan Singh, Director, Central Institute of Indian Languages.

''They recommended Sri Krishna Murthy's name and subsequently the decision was unanimously approved by the Executive Board of the Akademi in its meeting held on April 15 2006,'' it adds.

The memorandum also says the office of the President, Sahitya Akademi occupied by eminent Urdu scholar Prof Gopi Chand Narang is being ''unnecessarily maligned''.

On the CBI inquiry into alleged financial irregularities levelled against Mr Murthy, the writers say the CBI did not find any charge against him after a three-year-long probe.

''The matter was then sent to the Central Vigilance Commission who agreed with the finding and returned it to the Sahitya Akademi to deal with it as per rules. Accordingly Sri Krishna Murthy was exonerated,'' it says.

The other signatories include Akademi General Council members Dr Ashwini Kumar Desai and Dr Anila Dalal, Dr Kumarpal Desai and Akademi Award winners Padma Sachdev (Dogri), Dr Giriraj Kishore (Hindi) and Dr AMK Shahryar (Urdu).

The Union Culture Ministry had rejected the appointment, which it says did not conform to the guidelines on filling up a 'Grade A' post as all such posts are presently under a general ban.

Prof Satchidanandan retires on May 31.

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