The Assam Government has drawn criticism from the anti-talk faction of the Ulfa for conferring the Srimanta Sankaradeva Award to film personality Sharmila Tagore.
In a statement emailed to media on Tuesday, the anti-talk faction of the Ulfa has said that the Government’s move to confer the award on Tagore has undermined the greatest Vaishnavite saint of Assam.
“Selecting Hindi cinema’s bikini girl Begum Ayesha Sultana (Tagore) for the award is also an insult to the 15th century Vaishnav saint-reformer of Assam in whose honour it was constituted,” said the Ulfa statement issued by its publicity secretary Arunodoi Asom.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday gave the prestigious award to Tagore for her rich contribution to India’s cultural life.
The Ulfa also asked Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi-led Assam Government to explain to the people about the reasons behind conferring the prestigious award to the film personality, who, according to them, had no contribution towards publicising and spreading the teachings of the State’s greatest saint reformer. The outfit referred to the recent incident, where the Central Government had rejecting the State’s Republic Day tableau on Chaolung Sukapha by merely terming him an ‘invader’.
It may be mentioned here that the Assam Government had instituted the award to honour persons of eminence in the field of Journalism, Art, Culture and literature in the hallowed name of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankaradeva in 1986.
The award carries award money of Rs 3 lakh, a citation and a gold medal and is given only to individuals of 50 years of age and above. Among those who had received the award in the past included - Satyajit Ray (1988), Dr Bhupen Hazarika (1987), Kapila Vatsayan (1990), Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar (1992), Gangubai Hangel (1993), Bhabesh Shanyal (1996), Kelucharan Mahapatra (1997), Amjad Ali Khan (1999), Habib Tanbir (2003), BG Verghese (2005) and many others.