The 35th Chennai book fair started on a controversial note after May 17, a pro-Tamil group, staged a protest in the fair venue demanding that the Malayala Manorama publication stall be removed, and criticising its stand on the Mullaperiyar issue.
Members of May 17 had protested before the Manorama stall on January 8, three days after the book fair started.
The Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), which organises the book fair, had assured the organisation that the Manorama stall would be removed. However, BAPASI decided to let Manorama have its stall, albeit on a low-key.
“We appreciate the sentiments of the protestors, but we have to protect our member,” R.S. Shanmugam, president, BAPASI, told Deccan Chronicle. Shanmugam also said police protection has been sought for the Manorama stall.
The deputy commissioner of Kilpauk range, Bhavaneeshwari, denied all knowledge of the issue, but said that steps would be taken to prevent any disruption.
On January 7, the May 17 group had protested at a book release function saying that writer Arundhati Roy should not attend the function. The group had accused the organisers, Kalachuvadu Publications, of being “anti-Dalit, anti-Islam and anti-Eelam”. The translation of Roy’s Broken Republic was one of the seven released at the fuunction.
Roy said the release of ‘Cage’ in Tamil — a book by former UN spokesperson Gordon Weiss on the last days of the Sri Lankan war — “appeared to be their main objection”. The book while indicting the Sri Lankan government “is also sharply critical of LTTE’s tactics”.
“The annihilation of criticism, introspection, debate, difference of opinion, is the annihilation of politics itself. It is a way of thinking and acting that could have been one of the reasons for the LTTE’s defeat,” she said.