The Bangla Academy has accorded special honors to Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, India. In his protest, author and researcher Ratna Rashid Banerjee returned the Annadashankar Memorial in 2019. He also received the Bangla Academy Award in 2009.
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However, Ratna said that only the commemorative honor of 2019 will be returned.
AdvertisingBesides, writer and editor Anadiranjan Biswas has resigned from the Bangla Advisory Council of Sahitya Akademi for the same reason.
In a statement, Anadi said he was “upset” by the way the poem was disrespected on the day of Rabindra Janmajayanti in Kolkata. That is why he has resigned.
On Monday afternoon, Bratya Basu, the Minister of Education of West Bengal and President of the West Bengal Bangla Academy, announced a special award from the official stage of the 25th Baishakh celebrations.
He said the award would be given this year to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her views on the best writers. Bratya also said that the award would be given every three years.
Although there was affection on the stage at that time, it was Bratya, the president of Bangla Academy, who was seen accepting the award on her behalf. After this, the issue of Mamata receiving this award came up in the center of discussion in different quarters. On Tuesday afternoon, Ratna and Anadi both protested against receiving the award.
Ratna said on Tuesday that a protest was needed against the way the Bangla Academy had announced the award. He said that he (Mamata) is a respectable person. He won the votes of all of us and became the Chief Minister. Expect a mature decision from him. The book must have a standard. Why would he take the prize!
Anadi said that Kolkata had disrespected Bengali poetry on Rabindranath’s birthday. I have kept Rabindranath in my bosom since childhood. His poems are precious to me. If such an award is given in the name of a poem on the birthday of that poet, then it disrespects the poem as a whole. In protest, I resigned from the Bangla Advisory Council of Sahitya Akademi.
Ratna said the glory of this award has not been preserved. Literary pursuit. My decision has nothing to do with politics.
