January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

NEW DELHI, Jan 14: Novelist Arundhati Roy has turned down a national award from India’s academy of letters because she opposes the government’s policies, the Press Trust of India reported.

The novelist sent the institution a one-page fax saying she did not want to accept a prize from a body linked to the government, an academy official told PTI.

“We are trying to persuade her to reconsider her decision. We are telling her that the (Sahitya) Akademi is intellectually and culturally purely autonomous although it is funded by the government,” said K. Sachidanandan.

“There have been many occasions when we opposed government policies ourselves,” said the academy official.

Arundhati Roy, who won the 1997 Booker prize for her first novel, ‘The God of Small Things’, is known in India as a strong critic of the government and in particular for her opposition to 1998 nuclear tests and big dam projects. The award comes with a cash prize of 40,000 rupees and a plaque.—AFP