Shiv Batalvi — a forgotten poet in own hometwon

Ravi Dhaliwal

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Tribune News Service

Batala, May 6

It was the 45th death anniversary of Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi on Sunday and sadly nobody paid tributes to him.

With the passage of time, the youngest recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award has become a forgotten man, it seems.

For the last several years, Batala-based Shiv Batalvi Arts and Cultural Society, formed to keep his works alive, has been organising functions at the auditorium named after him.

Society president Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar said since the Punjab Government had last year announced that it would organise a state-level function on the day, the society was left with no option, but to cancel this year’s function.

On May 13, 2017, Cultural Affairs Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had announced that a state-level function would be held every year to remember the great poet, but nothing of the sort ever happened, leaving his fans disappointed.

The society was formed in 2010 with the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner being its ex-officio chairman and the Batala SDM its member secretary.

“I met the Deputy Commissioner thrice, urging him to chalk out a plan for this year’s event, but did not get any response. After Sidhu’s announcement, the society chose to go with the flow as it could not hold a function on its own,” said Nijjar.

With the society virtually rendered useless and Sidhu not keeping his promise, the footprints of Punjab’s most famous son seem to have been erased.

“Batalvi was not born just to live, die someday and then forgotten. Rather, he was born to leave his footprints and literary landmarks behind for posterity,” said Dr Ravinder Singh, his fan.