Credit: Times of India:
See photoKOLKATA: After Salman Rushdie, its Taslima Nasreen. If Rushdie’s video conference was not allowed to be held at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the release of Nasreen’s latest book, Nirbashan (exile), which was scheduled at 3 pm at the airconditioned auditorium.
The organisers of the fair, Publishers and Booksellers Guild, apparently telephoned the publisher of the book, People’s Book Society, to summarily cancel the booking of the auditorium.
“We were told that since the Kolkata Literary Meet ended late last night, the hall could not be prepared for our programme. But unofficially we have been told that since the book is Taslima’s, and she is a banned author, it was blacked out,” said Shibani Mukherjee, publisher. The book was however released at the stall a little while later by the publisher, ignoring the “insult meted out to us by the Guild.”
The book was released by author Nabarun Bhattacharyan son of writer cum human rights activist, Mahasweta Devi. Among the others present were, writer Ranjan Bandopadhyay and human rights activist, Sujato Bhadra.
“All this while we were condemning the Salman Rushdie episode and now we are not allowing the release of a book by another world acclaimed writer. I condemn this move by the Guild,” Bhattacharya said.