Sahitya Akademi cancelled one of its programmes in Kolkata, in which popular Bengali poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay had initially been invited as a speaker.

The organisation cited ‘unavoidable circumstances’ as the reason behind the cancellation.

On October 24 evening, the Akademi said in an X post: "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 development took place in the wake of objections raised by a section of people on social media over the selection of Srijato for his controversial poem Abhishap (Curse).

In that poem, a particular line drew backlash from a section of people for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

When the Akademi announced the list of speakers for the October 25 event, some netizens claimed that the organisation had allegedly hurt religious sentiments by inviting Bandyopadhyay.

On October 24 evening, the Akademi cancelled the event, scheduled to be held on October 25 at Sahitya Akademi's regional office in Bhowanipore.

However, the Akademi's other programmes — awarding translation works in different languages— had been held as scheduled, where the poet concerned had not been invited.

The Akademi’s decision to cancel the event has been interpreted by some as a response to public pressure rather than a pre-emptive decision by the organisation.

However, the Akademi itself did not specify any reason beyond what is mentioned in the X post.