‘I feel insulted’: Author returns award after Mamata Banerjee gets literary honour
India Today
Bengal-based writer and researcher Ratna Rashid Banerjee returned her award after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee received the Bangla Academy Award for her "relentless literary pursuit".
A controversy broke out between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after a Bengal-based writer and researcher returned a prestigious award, which was conferred on her in 2019 by the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy, as a mark of protest against the same academy for giving CM Mamata Banerjee literary honour.
On Monday, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee received the Bangla Academy Award for her "relentless literary pursuit".
The new award, introduced this year by Sahitya Academy, was presented to the chief minister for her book ‘Kabita Bitan’, which pays tribute to the best writers of West Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee was given the award at a function organised by the government's information and culture department on the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore's birth anniversary.
Ratna Rashid Banerjee in her message to the academy stated that she does not consider Mamata's book as a piece of literature and returning the award is her way of protesting against the move.
“I feel insulted by the move to give a literary award to the CM. This is my protest against that decision. I cannot accept that. I do not consider CM’s book ‘Kabita Bitan’ as literature at all. She is our chief minister. We gave her a vote. I am an elderly lady. I know the language of the pen only. I don’t belong to any political party. And not even remain in any lobby. We know she is in a higher post which is not reachable for us. It will set a bad precedent,” she said.
