CHENNAI: CPM Madurai MP Su Venkatesan has written to Union Minister for Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, expressing grave concern over what he described as the Ministry of Culture’s intervention in the decisions of the Sahitya Akademi’s National Executive Council relating to the 2025 awards.
In his letter, Venkatesan who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011 for his debut novel 'Kaval Kottam', said that the National Executive Council, following established procedure, had approved the recommendations of the language-wise juries constituted by the Akademi. He said that this process, over the decades, had ensured the credibility, independence, and standing of the Sahitya Akademi in the literary world.
Venkatesan criticised the Ministry’s reported decision to withhold the recommendations and subject the jury process to an audit, calling it unprecedented and wholly uncalled for. He said that at no point in the Akademi’s history had literary judgments made by expert juries been subjected to executive or administrative scrutiny.
Stating that literary evaluation was an intellectual exercise grounded in expertise, peer judgment and academic integrity, the MP said treating it like a financial or procedural transaction amounted to an encroachment on institutional autonomy. He warned that such bureaucratic scrutiny diluted the Akademi’s mandate and undermined its autonomy, which was intended to shield literature from executive interference.
Venkatesan also expressed concern over what he termed the Akademi’s silence in the face of the intervention, saying it was troubling and contrary to its distinguished legacy. He said compelling a premier cultural institution to submit its intellectual judgments for executive review set a dangerous precedent and risked reducing independent cultural bodies to instruments of administrative control.
Urging the Ministry to withdraw its intervention, Venkatesan called on it to desist from any audit or review of jury decisions and allow the Sahitya Akademi to announce the 2025 awards in line with established procedures. He cautioned that any deviation would cause lasting damage to the credibility of the Akademi and to India’s literary and democratic traditions.