NEW DELHI: Following allegations of harassment against a literary editor, 12 Indian poets have said they will withdraw their works from a Sahitya Akademi anthology being edited by him if he is not replaced.
In a letter addressed to Akademi secretary Sreenivasa Rao, the poets, who were contributors to the proposed "Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians", said they did not wish to be associated with the editor because of "irreconcilable differences".
The letter of March 6 comes after another poet alleged in a Facebook post that the editor had clicked and posted her photographs from a literary festival in Silchar without her consent and captioned them in a way that made her feel "humiliated, reduced, and violated.
Acknowledging Sahitya Akademi's work in creating the anthology, the poets wrote that they would remain with the project if the editor was replaced.
"If replacement is not possible, then we ask for our submissions to be withdrawn from the anthology immediately," the poets wrote in the letter which they said was "an act of our own will and without any pressure or influence".
The letter was signed by Minal Hajratwala, Shikha Malaviya, Semeen Ali, Mihir Vatsa, Sumana Roy, Ellen Kombiyil, Smita Sahay, Kanishka Gupta, Damini Kane, Nabina Das, Aditya Mani Jha and Shelly Bhoil.
Sahitya Akademi president Chandrashekhara Kambara, when contacted by PTI, said the institute was yet to look into the matter.