Kolkata's shame - Calcutta Book Fair cancellation of the official launch of Taslima Nasreen's book

From: The Times of India

Kolkata's shame
Feb 3, 2012, 12.00AM IST

In yet another example of tacit political endorsement of fundamentalists militating against freedom of expression, the Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the launch of Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen's latest book, Nirbashan (Exile), citing security concerns. In a repeat of the Salman Rushdie episode at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Kolkata police let the organisers of the fair know that going ahead with the scheduled book launch would have serious security ramifications. This after the All India Minority Forum - the group whose violent protests had forced Taslima out of West Bengal in 2007 - sent delegations to the police and the organisers warning of dire consequences. And when the publishers of the book did a smaller release at their stall, the extremists tried their best to disrupt it. That enough security could not be mustered for a simple book launch is not only an indictment of the Kolkata police but also its political masters.

Lumpen elements threatening violence, while the government of the day looks the other way, is only one step down the road from state-sponsored violence of the sort seen at Nandigram and Singur. Having come to power on the promise of 'poribarton' these are charges that Mamata Banerjee's government must answer. The propensity to pander to extremist elements for electoral gains cuts across political parties. Unless arrested, the space for freedom of expression is bound to shrink further. Book banning in a democracy is a matter of shame and the trend must be reversed. Our cherished democratic values cannot be allowed to be hijacked by a lunatic fringe who happen to receive endorsement from cynical politicians.