Karnataka is no stranger to controversy when it comes to awards. Be it the film awards or the Rajyotsava awards, controversy has always shadowed the announcement of awards in the state.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise that a controversy has erupted again, this time over Dr Chandrashekar Kambar being honoured with the prestigious Jnanpith award.
On Tuesday, amidst the euphoria, noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa struck a jarring note in the Kannada literary world when he said Kambar did not deserve the award, which, in Puttapa’s view, should have gone to the “most deserving novelist SL Bhyrappa”.
Puttappa sees intense lobbying as the reason for Bhyrappa losing out to less deserving litterateurs like Kambar.
Puttappa, in an apparent reference to Bhyrappa’s novel Aavarana, which had created a furore in the Kannada literary world with many accusing him of pandering to Hindutva elements, said that a “big lobby was behind the selection of the awardee”.
“Bhyrappa should have got it,” said Puttappa. “I would have been proud if the choice had been made in a more transparent manner and had it been awarded to a more deserving candidate.”
“I don’t feel proud over Kannada literature clinching the prestigious award for the eighth time as the choice hasn’t been fair,” he added.
Bhyrappa is one of the bestselling novelists in Kannada. Many of his books, including Naayi-Neralu are used as textbooks for undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in Karnataka. Sandalwood has produced movies on his books Vamsha Vriksha, Naayi-Neralu, Godhuli and Matadaana.
He received the prestigious Saraswati Samman award for Mandra, one of his hugely acclaimed novels.
