Three members of the jury community for the Nobel Prize have quit their positions as a sign of protest against the manners in which the Swedish academy conducts itself. Though the judges who quit did not offer any explanations which could tantamount to a substantiating reason, many experts in the media have extended their speculations.
Kjell Espmark, Klas Ostergren and Peter Englund are the judges who have resigned from their capacity as judges of the Nobel literature prize committee. People are considering this unprecedented move to be associated with the alleged sexual misconduct committed by a person with whom a key person in the committee has close associations.
Peter Englund, one of the three judges to quit, offered his limited view that he was not very much satisfied with the manner in which the committee has tried to handle the crisis situation.
It should be clear to the readers that the Swedish Academy appoints the members in the 18-member committee for a life-term and no member can leave the jury on technical grounds. However, this move has surprised many because, in media, there were talks since long on how the Swedish Academy was involved in this long-going incident. This is the second time when one or more judges have offered their resignation. The last time it was in 1989 over the issue of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses – when the Academy denied to denounce the death sentence of Salman Rushdie tendered by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. That time, however, the resignations were not accepted. We will have to wait and watch on how the situation develops and we will keep you updated with the latest movements.
These incidents only show us how fragile is the atmosphere behind the luxury curtains of glory and wealth! Every person, be it a wealthy businessman or a famous author, is a human being at last!
report by an LN contributor with inputs from several news sources