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Bengali poet Mandrakranta Sen returns Sahitya Akademi award

by IBNS 14 Oct 2015, 08:13 am

Kolkata, Oct 14 (IBNS) Noted Bengali poet Mandakranta Sen has returned her Sahitya Akademi Young Writers Special Award in protest against communal attacks in the country.

"This is my mark of protest against what happened in Dadri and the attacks on writers and rationalists in other parts of the country," she said on Tuesday. 

"In a country when a man is being killed for eating beef, we feel that we should protest. That is why, I decided to return Sahitya Akademi award," Sen said.

 Sen was given the Swarnajayanti Special Sahitya Akademi Young Writers award in 2004.

She is the first author from West Bengal to return the award while at least 15 Sahitya Akademi winners from across the country have already disowned the honour protesting what communal disharmony and attack on India's diversity.