WHAT has happened centring on poet Mohon Raihan being named as the recipient, along with eight others, of the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2025 and then being denied the award on the day of the award handover is an indecent episode. The Bangla Academy on February 23 named the recipients and all but Mohon Raihan were given the award during the inauguration of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair on February 26. The poet, who participated in the rehearsal of the award handover the day before, was invited to the ceremony. His name was initially announced but he was not called on to the stage when the award was handed over to the other recipients. The minister of state for cultural affairs and the Bangla Academy director general are reported to have informed the poet of the situation and asked him to leave the premises just before the ceremony. This is humiliation handed down to the poet, which constitutes indecency on part of both the academy and the government. It has been learnt, as the poet has also said, that a satirical poem that he had written four decades ago, with allusion to former president Ziaur Rahman, was the reason for the award denial.
With the noise against the poet having happened in the ruling political quarters before the abrupt denial of the award, the decision constitutes an intervention in the decision of the Bangla Academy, which is an autonomous institution. This also constitutes a miserable weakness of the Bangla Academy, which has failed to stand by its decision. If the poet were not to be given the award, the academy needed to decide it during the selection and before the announcement of the recipients of the award. This is certainly not something that needs to happen after the poet was named for the award and invited to the handover ceremony. This is an insult that the government and the institution cannot do to a citizen. The prime minister, Tarique Rahman, at the Ekushey Padak distribution ceremony earlier in the day, said that the politicisation of education, research, arts and literature is no sign of a civilised society. What the prime minister says about the politicisation of arts and literature and what the government has done by denying a named recipient the award because of a political satirical poem do not go hand in hand. When the prime minister reduces the number of vehicles in his motorcade, the BNP lawmaker for a Cox’s Bazar constituency, as reported earlier, travels with a convoy of eight to 10 vehicles. The BNP grass roots does not learn by example. When the prime minister speaks against the politicisation of literature, the government appears not to believe it.
Such a humiliating episode for a citizen by the government should not have happened.
