Tripura CM Manik Saha inaugurates Agartala Book Fair, no Bangladeshi stall for first time

Of the 177 book stalls, 42 are from outside the state. These are mostly from West Bengal, Assam, and Delhi.

“Since the Agartala Book Fair started, publishers or booksellers from Bangladesh used to come to the fair. Even publishers and booksellers based in Kolkata used to sell Bangladeshi books. But no one from Bangladesh approached us to join the fair this year,” a senior official associated with the fair said.

The absence of Bangladeshi book stalls at the Agartala Book Fair came close on the heels of protests over displaying Bangladeshi books at some book fairs held in West Bengal recently.

A Bangladeshi trader was also forced to shut his book stall at a fair in Assam’s Silchar in November last year following protests over the violence against Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government.

In his inaugural address, Saha, who also holds the Information and Cultural Affairs portfolio, said, “The new year has started with a book fair. We have fixed the dates and schedule of the book fair this year considering the examination dates of students.”

Warning against a growing tendency to buy fewer books, the CM said, “Some people buy fewer books as everything can be seen on mobile these days. But that is alpangyan (scant knowledge) and this tendency has its problems.”

Saha appealed to people to resume the tradition of buying, reading, and gifting books on social occasions.

He admitted that a section of publishers demanded that the Agartala Book Fair be held in the state capital rather than Hapania, but the fair organisers discussed the issue and decided to continue the fair in Hapania considering the infrastructure and other facilities.