Noted Assamese litterateur, Dr Rita Chowdhury on Thursday has resigned from the post of Director of National Book Trust following her latest Facebook post, ‘I am Assamese’ (Moi Asomiya).
The author of popular Assamese novel Makam and several others, is the wife of Assam’s Industry and Commerce Minister and a BJP leader Chandra Mohan Patowary.
Rita Chowdhury, who was conferred the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for her book Deo Langkhui, which according to her, “a novel of epic proportions about the glorious Tiwa Kingdom of Assam”, took charge from Dr MA Sikandar, following his repatriation to University of Delhi.
As protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 continue to rock the State, Rita Chowdhury, after her Facebbok post stating “I am Assamese”, had faced several questions from a large number of people on the social media platform.
The noted novelist, before joining NBT, was serving as an Associate Professor of Political Science department at Cotton College (now Cotton University) in Guwahati.
She was also one of the top leaders of Assam Agitation (1979-85) against illegal migrants from Bangladesh in Assam.
Dr Chowdhury, however, has not made public the reason for her decision to resign from the post of the NBT Director before the end of her extended tenure.
Confirming about her resignation, Chowdhury told ‘Northeast Now’, “Yes, I have resigned from NBT. I am not willing to make the reason public right now. I will make it public later.”