Akshaya Mukul, a senior journalist at
The Times of India, and one of the recipients of this year's Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, has boycotted the awards ceremony. The awards were presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 2.
The Caravan reports that Mukul boycotted the occasion, saying, "I cannot live with the idea of Modi and me in the same frame." Mukul won the RNG award in the category of "books (non fiction)" for his critically-acclaimed work
Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (2015). It remains to be seen how his employer,
TOI, which has spiked opinion pieces critical of Modi, reacts to his gesture.