What Rajasthan Government could not do , Bengal Administration did easily enough !
West Bengal ruled by Trinamul Congress Government shows it how to do it.
Salman Rushdie, a few days back had to cancel his visit to India for the Jaipur Literature Festival due to threat of life and while the Central and Rajasthan State Government kept insisting there was no such fear, they probably hoped Salman Rushdie does not turn up. And it happened! All thanks to some religious hardliners who did not even allow the author’s lines to be read from Satanic Verses and to top it all they succeeded to stop Rushdie’s pre-scheduled Video Conference in the Festival.
Rumours spread about Taslima Nasreen’s release being halted , in Kolkata while it was postponed due to some technical reasons as explained by the organizers. It was obvious as similar protests were organised by hardliner groups against Taslima, again as controversial as Rushdie, for writing , what they consider as anti-islamic.
However , Nirbashan, the 7th volume of Taslima’s auto-biography did launch amidst protests which had to mild down as it seemed spineless and moreover, inspired by Jaipur Literature Festival protest success. Dey’s Publishing, released Nirbashan’s 7th Volume today,1st feb’2012 in front of a stall at the Kolkata Book Fair.
A democratic and a secular country has to behave like one and it is the Government’s responsibility to assure this. Previously, religious and social leaders who had almost half the country supporting them were challenged on the face by the Central Government while conducting mass-protest against anti-corruption and black-money issue and the Government remained firm on its stands and did all it took to lower down the impact of the movements. Hence, it becomes questionable why the same Government, be it state or central, falls under the pressure of few hundreds or thousands protesters? Is it not just because of Vote-Bank politics ?
Whatever the reason may be, it is the West Bengal Government which neither allowed making Taslima Nasreen’s book release, a ‘Breaking News’ nor did they give up in front of the protests, resulting in the successful launch of Nirbashan Volume 7.