Poet Yashwant Manohar Refuses To Accept Jeevanvrati Award As Saraswati Puja Will Be Held During The Ceremony

In a controversial move, Marathi poet Yashwant Manohar has refused to accept the ‘Jeevanvrati’ award by Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh (VSS) because Saraswati puja will be held at the award-distribution program, reports The Indian Express.

Yashwant Manohar who identifies himself as a rationalist had conveyed to the literary body that he would not be able to accept the award if Saraswati puja is held at the proposed program.

“I swear by India’s constitution and VSS knows my position very well. When VSS president Manohar Mhaisalkar called me to convey the offer of the award, I accepted it. But later, I conveyed to them that I would not be able to accept the award in case Saraswati puja would be a part of the program. They said, it would not be possible to drop Saraswati puja from the schedule since it was a matter of their faith. I fully respect their position and hence I very politely declined to accept the award,” poet Yashwant Manohar told The Indian Express.

Further he added that literary bodies must remain secular and should have its symbol as great litterateurs, not of any ‘abstract things’.

“If he had conveyed this to us at the time of giving him the offer, this whole controversy could have been avoided. Saraswati is a symbol of knowledge and literature and hence is also a symbol of faith. We couldn’t have dispensed with the puja because Yashwant Manohar wanted us to do that,” said VSS president Manohar Mhaisalkar.