Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki on Saturday said the government has no plans to impose censorship on books.
"This is false information. If a police officer has made such a statement, it reflects his personal opinion. We do not agree with it, and we do not believe in censorship of any book or any form of expression," he said.
He made these comments during the inauguration of the two-day National Poetry Festival 2025, organized by the National Poetry Council at Hakim Chattar, University of Dhaka.
Regarding the Bangla Academy Literary Award, Farooki said: “The m inistry is not involved in the decision-making process of the Bangla Academy Literary Award. The Bangla Academy is an autonomous institution, and they make their own decisions. However, after the decision was announced, we saw that the autonomy of the institution had been misused, allowing certain authoritarian elements to infiltrate it.
"We also noticed many complaints on social media suggesting that the awards reflected personal biases of certain individuals.”
He added: “When these criticisms surfaced, the Ministry had a responsibility to ask Bangla Academy for clarification. Consequently, the award committee of Bangla Academy held another meeting and decided to suspend the awards to investigate the matter further. When the director general (DG) of Bangla Academy informed me of this decision via WhatsApp, I shared it on Facebook because it was a matter of public interest.
"This does not mean that I personally decided to suspend the awards. I have no personal influence over who receives the award,” he said.
Highlighting irregularities in the selection process, the adviser said: “The nominations for the award are given by 30 fellows of the Academy. Now, who are these fellows? They are either past award recipients or individuals connected in some way. If we look at the recipients of the Bangla Academy Literary Award over the past 15 years, we can see their political affiliations. Notably, a distinguished scholar like Salimullah Khan applied twice for membership and was rejected. This shows that Bangla Academy has turned into a hub for individuals of a particular ideology.”
Farooki also pointed out major flaws in the award selection process, saying: “The 30 fellows submit their nominations, which are then opened during the award committee’s meeting. However, there have been allegations of corruption in this process, where some fellows might have influenced the selection. These accusations need further investigation. The most absurd part of the process is that once the envelopes are opened, the names are announced within 30 minutes to an hour. The committee, consisting of 7–8 members, may not have even read all the books properly.
"In fact, when one of the committee members requested to review the books of the two most controversial winners—who wrote political propaganda disguised as poetry—he was told that there was no provision for such a review and that the announcement had to be made immediately. This makes the entire process deeply flawed,” he added.
To ensure transparency in Bangla Academy, Farooki announced plans to form a reform committee, saying: “To prevent the Academy from being dominated by a select group of 30 fellows, we will establish an inclusive reform committee comprising scholars, writers, and researchers from various perspectives. During our tenure, we hope that the reform committee will submit its report, allowing us to revamp Bangla Academy into a dynamic and transparent institution. Currently, it has become stagnant, which is not something we can accept.”