Renowned Bengali writer Ratna Rashid Banerjee has returned a prestigious award to the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy in protest against the institution’s decision to honour West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a literary award.
“As a writer, I feel humiliated by the move of conferring the literary award to CM. It will set a bad precedent. Statement of Academy, praising relentless efforts of CM in field of literature is a mockery of truth”, she said on returning her award by the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy on May 10.
WB| As a writer I feel humiliated by the move of conferring literary award to CM. It will set a bad precedent. Statement of Academy, praising relentless efforts of CM in field of literature is mockery of truth: Author Ratna Rashid Banerjee on returning her award by Bangla Academy pic.twitter.com/E8MTdvvkXL
— ANI (@ANI) May 11, 2022
She wrote to the institution on Tuesday and mentioned that by honouring WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Academy has not only set a condemnable example but has also insulted all people who are dedicated to Bengali literature. The writer was awarded the Annada Shankar Ray Memorial Award in 2019, the memento of which she will now send back to the Academy’s office.
Reportedly, Anadiranjan Biswas, a member of the general counsel of the Sahitya Akademi also resigned from the national institution’s Bengali advisory board after Paschimbanga Bangla Academy decided to laud CM Mamata Banerjee with a literary award. “Sheer insult has been caused to Bengali poetry in Kolkata. Earlier also, it has been observed by me that whims, caprices, nepotism, and ‘pick and choose’ theory are ruling the contemporary Bengali literature in Kolkata,” Biswas said on May 10.
On May 9, on the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore’s 161st birth anniversary, the Bangla Academy honored the chief minister with a special award for her relentless contribution to Bengali literature. At the ceremony, the education minister and Bangla Academy chairperson Bratya Basu said that a host of leading litterateurs had chosen Mamata for the inaugural award.
“The award the chief minister received will be given away once in three years to people from the non-literary world who have made a significant contribution to literature”, Basu said at the even accepting the award on behalf of CM.
Ratna Banerjee is a retired official of the state education department and has penned several books on various genres ranging from poems and novels to folklore. Her works on traditional songs sung during marriage ceremonies of Bengali Muslims and those on Bengal’s culture are widely recognized. She has written more than 110 books that are displayed every year at the stall at the Kolkata International Book Fair.
