The Sahitya Akademi’s regional office in Kolkata cancelled a programme featuring Bengali poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay, citing “unavoidable circumstances” in a message posted on X on October 24.

The event, part of the Akademi’s “Abhivyakti” series and due to be held at 2.30 pm on October 25, was called off a day before it was to take place.

“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,” the Akademi said.

The decision followed a wave of criticism on social media over a line in Bandyopadhyay’s poem “Abhishap” (curse) , which people said ‘hurt religious sentiments’.

The debate intensified after the Akademi announced the poet as a speaker, with sections of people accusing the institution of insensitivity in programming him amid the controversy.

Bandyopadhyay, a well-known and often outspoken poet whose work frequently engages political and religious themes, has been involved in previous controversies.

In 2017, an FIR was lodged against him in Siliguri alleging that the poet deliberately offended Hindu sentiments.

The complaint and the online reactions appear to have prompted the Akademi’s last-minute cancellation.

The Akademi went ahead with other scheduled programmes on October 25, including awards for translation work in different languages, but those events did not feature Bandyopadhyay.
The regional office did not give further details about the “unavoidable circumstances” when it announced the cancellation.