The decision of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government to withdraw an award conferred to Anagha Lele for her Marathi translation of alleged Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy’s memoir has snowballed into a major political issue with the Opposition accusing the government of interfering in literature.
Ghandy’s memoir Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir was translated into Marathi by Lele.
On December 6, the government’s Marathi language department announced the Late Yashwantrao Chavan Literature Award 2021 for Lele.
However, on December 12, the decision of the selection committee had been reversed for “administrative reasons”. The award comprises a cash prize of Rs one lakh, and it has been withdrawn.
The Mumbai-born Gandhy, who attended the Doon School in Dehradun and later St Xavier's College in Mumbai, was arrested in 2009. He was accused of being a CPI (Maoist) politburo member but after a decade he was acquitted of terror charges.
After this development, Marathi authors Anand Karandikar and Neeraja decided to return their awards.
“The government should not interfere in issues related to literature,” Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ajit Pawar said on Wednesday. “The government appoints subject experts and they decide on the award, there should not be interference in such issues,” he said.