The 44th International Kolkata Book Fair which began on the 29th of January, 2020 and concluded on the 9th of November, 2020 witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon- a sudden spurt in interest of Kolkata Book lovers towards Nationalistic Literature. This was manifested by vast crowds in the BJP Mouthpiece, ‘Janabarta’ Stall No.376 and the VHP Stall No. 370. The booklets enumerating the benefits of CAA sold like hotcakes. As per the PTI Report dated 8th February, 2020, 6000 copies of the Booklets stating the advantages of CAA were sold as on Saturday, 8th February, from the VHP counter as against 1000 copies of the anti CAA book, ‘Nagarikatta Atanka’ (Fear of Citizenship) authored by the West Bengal CM, Ms. Mamata Banerjee and 800 copies of the SFI booklets against CAA.
The Leftists/Ultra leftists have dominated Bengal’s Literary and Cultural circle for the last 4 decades, so much so that it has imbibed an unhealthy doctrine into the minds of the quintessential Bengali, making them believe in an Utopian concept of Class Equality, even while these leftists kept on filling their own coffers, leaving only zilch in the hands of the common man of Bengal.
They made the Bengali romanticize them by always talking of Revolution (‘Biplob’) against a false enemy, the State or their rulers, this despite the fact that they ruled Bengal for more than 3 decades. They flooded the market with erotic literature, maligning the basic tenets of Sanatan Dharma, writing derogatory and malicious treatise on Hindu Gods and Goddesses thus converting the Hindu Bengali into a renegade and a meek being.
Thus, this sudden rise of Hindu Nationalism in Bengal, has scared them tas they fear that their dominance of Bengali psyche is gradually dwindling. Even when the Sangh oriented stalls were crowded, the leftists had no or very few takers.
Hence out of jealousy, they provoked the Nationalists on two occasions at the Kolkata Book Fair. They first attacked the BJP mouthpiece ‘Janabarta’ Stall No. 376 on Friday, the 7th of February, 2020 when they were aptly resisted by the visitors at the stall after a prolonged tussle. Then again on Saturday, the 8th of February, 2020 they vandalised the VHP Book Stall and stepped on The Bhagvad Gita to show their dissent against the CAA . Their intention was to get the Nationalists to do something untoward so that they can pressurize the otherwise hostile WB Govt. to ban the Sangh Stalls from the next Book Fair onwards, so that they can, accordingly, have a field day at the Fair.
The Biddhannagar Police arrested these leftist/ultra-leftist mischief-makers and in the Police Station they pulled the hair of a Lady Constable and heckled her. Since then a host of these leftists/Ultra-leftists have been issuing threats to the Sangh members and supporters of dire consequences through numerous facebook posts. Most of these IDs ahd no proper name or display pictures indicating that these are fake IDs. They declared that they would be congregating in front of the ‘Janabarta’ Stall No. 376 and VHP Stall No. 370 on Sunday, the 9th of February, 2020, which happened to be the last day of Kolkata Book Fair, 2020 and would attack the people present at those stalls.
A host of Bengali Nationalists, including women, led by BJP Leaders, Dr. Anupam Hazra and Advocate Debjit Sarkar (both candidates of the Lok Sabha elections, 2019) along with many other BJP Leaders, BJP-RSS-VHP Karyakartas and Nationalist Social Media Activists congregated at the said stalls to counter any such Leftist/Ultra-leftist attack therein. But these leftists did not display the courage to face upto them. However, the threats from the leftist/ultra-leftist Facebook IDs continued even after the conclusion of the Book Fair at 9PM last Sunday.
Most of the Kolkata Book lovers have expressed their angst and anger at the acts of vandalism of stalls and disregard for the Hindu Holy Text, The Bhagvad Gita by the Leftists/Ultra-leftists in the just concluded Kolkata Book Fair. The Book Fair has always been the intellectually inclined Bengali’s favourite non–religious festival. The elderly and the middle-aged residents of Kolkata state that they had never witnessed such a ghastly incident occur ever in the 44 year old history of the Kolkata Book Fair, which was converted into a political battleground by the leftists/ultra-leftists, simply out of their jealousy and insecurity of losing ground in Bengal to an ideology which is a polar opposite of theirs.
If the level headed Bengali doesnot rise to the occasion and resist such acts of vandalism and defamation of the Hindu Sanatani Culture by the Left elements, then the future seems to be bleak for Bengal.
Roonita
2020-02-11