Recently, a prestigious literary award called the ONV Kurup Award was conferred to famous poet and lyricist Varimuthu by the Kerala-based ONV Cultural Academy.

It was the first time a non-Keralite was receiving the honour, but soon after the announcement, the #MeToo community including personalities like Chinamayi, Parvathy, Rima Kallingal, Geetu Mohandas, and director Anjali Menon called out the academy for giving the award to someone accused with sexual allegations by many women.

Following the online backlash, the ONV Cultural Academy posted a statement that it will reconsider the decision o honouring Vairamuthu with the literary award

However, Vairamuthu shocked everyone by declining the award to avoid any issues for the award team. In his video statement, he put in a request to give the Rs 3 lakh prize amount to the Kerala Chief Minister's Relief Fund. The poet also promised to contribute Rs 2 lakh to the Relief Fund.

Check out the video here:


Source: On Manorama
Photo Credit: The Week & Asianet Newsable