By Aiswarya Raj
A book fair scheduled at a central university in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal has been cancelled after the ABVP college union asked the administration to revoke permission for the event.
The 12th edition of Kitaab Kautik, organised by a team called Creative Uttarakhand, was initially supposed to be held at the Government Girls’ Intercollege in Pauri’s Srinagar in January, but the RSS opposed it, according to Hem Pant, one of the event organisers.
“We postponed it and sought the permission of the Dean of the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, who approved the book fair and a panel discussion at their Senate Hall. But later, we were informed that we could not conduct the book fair on the premises. We approached the Ramleela committee to hold the book fair at the maidan in the town, but despite written permission, RSS has organised a programme the same day at the same venue,” he claimed.
Pant said they have decided to cancel the event. “The groups told us they would burn the books if we held the event. They alleged that we had communist literature. It is a book fair with over 70,000 books on different subjects. We also planned to bring Narendra Singh Negi, a folk artist who speaks about social issues. This has also not gone down well with the RSS,” he claimed.
The Dean of Student Welfare said they had to reconsider the permission after a “meeting” with the ABVP students’ union. “They expressed discontent at the book fair and the programme on the premises. They were concerned that the books would hurt the religious sentiments of people, so we had to reconsider it,” he said.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
