Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu said he was ”returning” the award, in effect he was declining the honour, saying he did not want the jury to face embarrassment and blamed ”vendetta” behind the decision to reconsider the award by the ONV Cultural Academy. The award was instituted in memory of Jnanpith laureate Malayalam poet late ONV Kurup and the song writer has been facing “MeToo” charges.
He requested that the cash prize of Rs three lakh announced by the academy be given to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Public Relief fund and announced his own contribution of Rs two lakh towards the same, as a “token” of his love for Kerala and its people. “Due to the interference of those with vendetta the award has been subject to reconsideration is what I have come to know.” Wondering if the protests were aimed at “belittling” him and Kurup, Vairamuthu said he wanted to make sure that the “scholarly jury should not be pushed to embarrassment.”
