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Following the shocking and inhuman sexual misconduct by Tarun Tejpal, mentor of Tehelka Magazine, on a junior staffer of his magazine, the organizers of the ‘CtrlS - iCONGO Karmaveer Puraskaar’, of which Tejpal was a recipient in 2009-10, have revoked the award. The award was given to Tejpal for his journalistic work, which included numerous exposes of misdoings by people in positions of power.
The Karmaveer Puraskaar requires, that recipients continue to hold high moral and Individual Social responsibility to guide other citizens to do more for the nation and the world. According to the organizers, the way that Tejpal repeatedly assaulted his young colleague goes against the values of the award which Dr. Verghese Kurien (the first recipient of the Karmaveer Puraskaar Lifetime Achievement Award) described as the award that had the most special place in his heart. Dr. Kurien had remarked, “Of all the awards I have been honoured with, Karmaveer Puraskaar holds a special place in my heart, since unlike most other awards, one does not need to indulge in any nepotism or lobby with any political or social for the Karmaveer award. One can simply earn this honour and recognition by doing something noble to make a difference in our world.” The values and sanctity of the awards have been violated and thus we must revoke the award.
Jeroninio Almeida (Jerry), founder and chief volunteer, iCONGO, pointed out, “Tejpal has let his fraternity down and also rebuked the Karmaveer Puraskaar by this unmanly behaviour which goes against every notion of being a human and is not the attitude of one who is to be seen as a guiding light or Karmaveer hero for others.” A Rex Karmaveer Global Fellow who was awarded the Karmaveer Chakra in 2012, Oswald Pereira, a celebrated bestselling author of books like Newsroom Mafia and Revenge of the Naked Princess and also a former colleague of Tejpal, is equally distraught, “What makes the crime even more barbaric is that the victim is less than half the age of Tejpal and that she is also the daughter of an ex-colleague, as well as a friend of Tejpal’s daughter.”
Jerry pointed out that, “Our mission at iCONGO is to RIGHT every WRONG and as a mark of our solidarity to stand and fight against all wrongs in society, we in discussion with our Karmaveer award recipients and Fellows have decided to revoke Tejpal's award.”The Karmaveer Puraskaarare Global Awards for Social Justice and Citizen Action instituted by the citizens and people of India. These awards are instituted by iCONGO (International confederation of NGOs), a public-private-people partnership in association with other partners from industry, media, government, students, SMEs and other sectors as a part of the Right every Wrong Movement. All the awardees are dubbed Noble Laureates. These awards seek to celebrate and inspire individual citizen social responsibility, social justice and citizen action initiatives.
We as the custodians of the Karmaveer award want to send a strong message to all the people in media, government and those who are still soft pedalling and even defending Tejpal's actions. This defence of a wrongdoing against a woman is even more dastardly. “I am told that the award and citation adorns the walls of Tarun's office,” Almeida said “Hence we revoke the award and set an example”. Jerry Almeida has informed that the revoke was to express solidarity with the survivor of the sexual harassment and rape and also to stand up and speak out against all people like Tejpal who misuse their power and stature and do wrongs in society. “When people with power abuse responsibility the society becomes most dangerous and such behaviour where a person with power and stature forces himself on a girl less than half his age is appalling and more gruesome,” asserted Almeida. The revoking of Tejpal’s Karmaveer honour is a consequence of the ill actions and all award recipients should keep this in mind that there is a big responsibility of living up to the Karmaveer honour.
In the decade long history of Karmaveer that has become the most coveted and credible award today this is only the second award we are revoking after having earlier revoked Vikram Akula’s award for all his financial irregularities and maltreatments of women borrowing loans through SKS Microfinance. It is a sad moment for all of us at Karmaveer and for the entire country and all of us as Indians that crimes against women are happening in all segments of our society and I always said it is only a myth that only people like Ram Singh are predatory beasts, because it has always been true that men in so called elitist societies who wield power are more dangerous and predatory.”
A pre-condition for the Karmaveer is to commit to uphold values of the Karmaveer and the standards of the fraternity. A Fundamental Duty ${esc.hash} 5 of the Noble laureate is to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women – which has been grossly, ignored by Tejpal. 26/11 has been celebrated by all at Karmaveer Puraskaar , REX - Ideas for Action and iCONGO as the CITIZEN ACTION DAY, when we pledge to preserve our values and fulfill our fundamental duties. 26/11 is the day, every year that Karmaveer award recipients are announced but this year we revoke Tejpal's Karmaveer award. “Let this revoking of honour with Tejpal be a caution to all of us in India and across the world to remember that it takes an entire lifetime to build our credibility and earn our honour but just one foolish, evil, wrong action to lose it all. To do right or do wrong is not just a circumstance or just a weak moment but a choice and each of us is personally responsible for the consequences of the choices we make,” affirmed Almeida.
May God bless the young woman journalist and give her and her family the strength to fight this demonic crime in a court of law. We at iCONGO extend our offer of counsel and legal help to her,” Jerry added. We as the organizers of the Karmaveer Puraskaar will further highlight the need for media to remain accountable during the upcoming REX CONCLiVE, which accompanies the Karmaveer awards function, which is scheduled to be held in New Delhi in February 2014.
For further information, please contact Jeroninio Almeida on 8285000262 or Jeroninio@icongo.in
