#TheDailyToast: The resignation bimari

Everyone in India has a resignation bimari. It is seasonal. Arvind Kejriwal, for instance, when he first came to power promptly resigned. He is the only CM to have resigned as CM, party leader to have resigned as party leader, and I am not sure yet if he has resigned from his home, but I am willing to bet half a month's salary that he has at some point. Now, you can't get him to let go of his chair for love or money. Now he sacks everyone else whose influence might impact his longevity in the chair.

Till this week, for instance, no one knew writers could resign. From what, the Jaipur Lit Fest lawns, you ask? Aha. That is the thing India is very inventive about: You don't actually have to belong to anything to resign from it. So the writers of India collective found something to resign from the only thing that offers them membership: The Sahitya Akademi (let no man question why a bunch of writers spelled Academy wrong. Try submitting a manuscript with a typo to that lot).

But you see, it was not Nayantara Sahgal who resigned first, but Uday Prakash:

Interesting pt by @KanchanGupta - Uday Prakash returning Sahitya Akademi award was ignored 'cause he is a Hindi writer. Then came Nayantara.

— HindolSengupta (@HindolSengupta) October 11, 2015

But since the elite group of intellectuals do not recognise a resignation until the resignee is a liberal or the institution being resigned from is left wing, Hindi pro-Dalit writer Uday Prakash got left out of taking credit for the resignation. He briefly pondered if he should withdraw his resignation and re-resign for better impact, and you know one could always sell a few more copies of Mohan Das, after all everyone isn't Chetan Bhagat... but then it just got caught in the avalanche.

So now Nayantara Sahgal got hashtagged.

And a whole bunch of Malayalam writers - MT Vasudevan Nair, C Radhakrishnan, Sugathakumari, P Vathsala and UA Khader - discovered that they could resign from the Sahitya Akademi mascot's viral hashtag by brandishing their Jnanpith Awards.

So they duly resigned from the protest of protesting the non-resignation of everyone in the Sahitya Akademi, which, in addition to not being the correct spelling of things, is also not a judicial body, an investigating body, or a political body, and currently has no clue what it is required to do in Kalburgi investigation beyond issuing a well-written, hopefully, statement of regret for the brutality of his murder. But that is besides the point, as most good writing often is.

What is important, clearly, is that people have resigned. From what, of what, with what and what for nobody knows or cares.

But hey at least we are not Nepal where they love resignation so much that Sushil Koirala, the eighth prime minister to resign in nine years, resigned and promptly filed his nomination for prime minister again.

The only person in India of course who has found a cure for the bimari is the BCCI's Srini. When he quits, he takes the control with him.