Tussle at the top in NBT over book fair

A day earlier, sources added, Chowdhury had allegedly walked out of a similar meeting held by Sharma, saying, “Yahan meri zaroorat hi nahin hai to mein bahar chali jaati hoon (I am going out if my presence is not needed here).”

When contacted, Sharma declined to comment. Chowdhury told The Indian Express that she had acted “as per rules”. “As a director I have the right to call any meeting in the NBT, any time. I don’t want to speak about happened inside the meeting,” she said.

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Sharma and Chowdhury were both appointed to the NBT this year by the NDA government. Sharma had been editor of RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya from 2008-2013, while Chowdhury’s husband is the former president of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) Chandra Mohan Patowary who joined the BJP last year.

During last Wednesday’s meeting, sources said, a core group member close to Chowdhury questioned the yoga theme, saying it would be difficult to “stretch this over nine days”. But another member close to Sharma argued that the theme was “appropriate”, the sources said.

Apart from the book fair, being held from January 9-17 next year in Delhi, another reason behind the alleged rift is the issue of work being outsourced to external editors, sources said.

One senior NBT official told The Indian Express that Sharma had asked for records related to work done by NBT editors over the last 10 years, as a “huge amount of money was flowing” for work outsourced to editors outside.

A third point of contention, sources said, is over a senior officer on deputation with Chowdhury allegedly not keen on retaining him.

NBT, established in 1959, publishes books in 31 languages including English and Hindi, and has around 275 employees in Delhi.