Hindutva volunteers storm Book Fair in Tripura, force publishing house to close down over ‘anti-nationalist’ books

In a rather startling incident, a group of hooligans bearing placards of Tripura Vivekananda Juba Sena stormed the 35th Agartala Book Fair premises and forced a stall to close down claiming that it was selling anti-national books.

The issue, that took the state's intelligentsia by surprise, involved a group of 8-10 youths of the so-called Hindutva organization storming the Book Fair premises this evening and starting protest demonstration in front of Progressive Publishers.

The publication house, known for its obvious left inclination has published a sizeable number of critical books. The book in question was also published some 10 years back. However, in what appears to be a mere publicity stunt, the Hindutwa affiliated organization forced officials of the publication firm present in the stall to close down.

The biggest surprise was yet to come anyway. Parbati Modak, an official of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs (ICA), who was one of those in-charge of the Book Fair office, was seen rushing to the concerned stall and forcing the Progressive Publishers personnel to roll down shutters.

"She didn't step inside the stall, neither did she cross-check the contents of the book that drew the controversy. The lady simply ordered personnel in the stall to shut it down", Dibakar Sengupta (name changed), an onlooker said.

Sengupta further said that none of the personnel from Chhatro Sangram, the left student body SFI's publication house or other left-minded publication houses came to the rescue of the attacked publisher. Neither did police personnel on duty at the Fair premises turn up till the ruckus ended with closure of the book stall.

After nearly 30 minutes, CPI (M) central committee member and veteran leader Goutam Das reached the Book Fair. He, alongwith few other officials and policemen, ensured that the closed book stall was re-opened.

Asked about the issue later, Subhabrata Deb, Publisher of Akshar Publication – leading publishing house of Tripura condemned the issue and said that such incidents showed how far the religious fundamentalists have stooped.

"This book, which they have protested against, was published some 10 year back. If the government or the judiciary hasn't imposed any restrictive measures or ban upon sale and use of any particular book, if it baffling to understand how some random group of hooligans muster such courage", Deb said.

Senior journalist and publisher of Tripura Darpan publication Samiran Roy condemned the incident as well saying that the attack of fundamentalist forces on books and reading was plain simple barbarism. "This can not be tolerated", Roy said adding that all publishers should stand up against attacks against free thinking and publication.

When asked about the incident, Officer-in-charge of West Agartala Police Station Narayan Saha, who went to oversee the situation for himself at the Book Fair 1 hour after the incident occured, said that there was a simple protest demonstration in front of a book stall. "The stall owners might have closed down due to fear. Later, they had re-opened", Saha said.

Nobody was arrested in connection with the incident at Book Fair this evening. "There was nobody whom we could find making any nuisance", the police official claimed.

The Tripura Publisher's Guild has also protested against the incident.

(TNT News)

Featured image(courtesy): The Wire