Hurt Hindu sentiments? Sahitya Akademi cancels Bengali poet’s event

Kolkata: Stating 'unavoidable circumstances', Sahitya Akademi cancelled one of its programmes in Kolkata, in which popular Bengali poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay had initially been invited as one of the speakers, PTI reported.

The development took place in the wake of objections raised by a section of people on social media over the selection of Srijato for his controversial poem 'Abhishap' (curse).

In that poem, there was a line about "putting a condom on a trishul (trident)”, which drew fire from a section of people who claimed that Srijato was hurting Hindu sentiments.

The Akademi, an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture, did not specify the reason behind the cancellation of the event titled “Abhivyakti” (expressions) last week in its auditorium in the city.

As the list of speakers for the programme was made public a few days ago, a section of the people, in their social media posts, accused the Akademi of being insensitive to public sentiments.

On the evening of October 24, the Akademi said in a X handle post: "Due to some unavoidable circumstances, the Abhivyakti programme, scheduled to be held at 2:30 pm on October 25 at Sahitya Akademi's Regional Office, Kolkata, has been cancelled." "Inconvenience caused, if any, is deeply regretted," it said.

However, Akademi's other programmes - awarding translation works in different languages - had been held as scheduled, where the poet concerned had not been invited.

The Akademi's decision to postpone/cancel the event has been seen as a response to public pressure by the general public.

A Sahitya Akademi official said that beyond the reasons cited in the statement, they do not have anything else to add regarding the issue.

In November 2024, the Akademi cancelled a seminar after inviting mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik, amid protests over his past online remarks.