Akademi’s skewed selection upsets travel writer
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Travel writer Jaison Panikulangara has questioned the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s award selection procedure and alleged that most of the around 69 books received in the travelogue category last year might not have been read.
“Only 10 books go to the jury, making the whole award exercise a farce,” he said here on Monday.
Jaison said his book Kargil Yatra was submitted for the award in the travel category.
Now, on making enquiries about the selection process with the Akademi through an RTI application, it was found that, as per practice, only 10 books were given to the jury.
The Akademi has 11 awards in different categories, each fetching Rs 25,000, a citation and a plaque.
The reply given by the Akademi secretary says that a seven-member committee screens the books and submits 10 of them to the three-member jury for final evaluation.
The secretary has made it clear that there is no grading system and that only 10 selected works are presented to the jury.
This, Jaison says, showed all the books submitted in all the 11 categories were not read by the jury.
His book on Kargil was perhaps the first in Malayalam and had been acknowledged by writer C. Radhakrishnan and poet and travel writer D. Vinayachandran as a work that would instill patriotism in every reader.
The Akademi secretary says there is a common criterion followed for selection and the responsibility was vested with the Akademi.
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