Bengal Governor Keshari Nath reacts to Sahitya Academy controversy

KOLKATA: Echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's views on the Sahitya Academy awards controversy, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today said that there might be political consideration which prompted the authors to return their awards now. Governor was speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of an event in the city.

Reacting to question on the Sahitya Academy award controversy, Bengal Governor said, “It makes one ponder as to whether there is small group of persons who are lobbying for the return of these awards. ….the country has witnessed several incidents between the day when they received the award and the day when they returned the awards. How is it possible that none of these incidents forced them to return the awards?” asked Governor Tripathi.

Questioning the ‘sudden awakening’ of the authors, the Governor said that there might be some “political consideration behind the return of awards”.He further added that the people should know about the political affiliations of these people and then decide whether the return of awards are “justified”.

“Why didn't they return the award when Nirbhaya incident happened in Delhi? They were even silent during the Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh. How did the sudden awakening happen?” he asked.

In a couple of weeks more than 20 authors have announced their decision of returning Sahitya Academy awards protesting against Dadri lynching incident. one of the youngest achievers of the award and a noted poet from Bengal, Mandakranta Sen too announced her decision to return the award on Tuesday.