The ongoing controversy about the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020-The Untold Story’ by advocate Monika Arora and Delhi University professors Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra, raises a big question mark on Bloomsbury as a publishing house. Stepping back from publishing this book means either they forgot to run fact checks on their own and no longer trust the authors or they simply buckled under the pressure. Both of which are unfortunate.
To add fuel to the fire, within few hours they announced another book on Twitter, ‘Shaheen Bagh—From Protest to a Movement’.
This has set a highly deplorable example of throttling freedom of expression and intolerance and goes on to expose the shallowness of this publishing house of big repute. Stifling one opinion and justifying another, in a matter of hours has disbalanced the entire discourse. Isn’t publisher a neutral entity?
Kapil Mishra’s Problematic Association
Most people who opposed this book were primarily against the fact that Kapil Mishra, a political leader with a reputation for notoriety, was the guest of honour at the book launch. I, too, had called him out many times for inciting violence and spreading hate and animosity among two communities. I don’t agree with his politics of hate. However, what else do you expect from a person who has made the most malicious, sickening, and vicious comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, when he was in the Aam Aadmi Party. His videos are still available and are widely shared on all social media platforms. He was called out for being the main inciter of Delhi riots.
But, again, one should not forget the fact that at one point in time he shared best of the relationships with Tahir Hussain, who is right now under police custody for being the main accused of Delhi riots. Can you join the dots here? How can you trust a person who is loyal to no one and only knows how to milk a political opportunity? The guest of honour certainly is questionable, here.
How Bloomsbury May Have Further Fanned the Communal Fire
The critical times that we live in, the controversy has quickly turned into an anti-Hindu/pro-Muslim war of words and blame games. By withdrawing from publishing the book, Bloomsbury has fanned the communal fire, with appeals of crowdfunding the book, to procuring the pirated copies and pdf versions and have them delivered to Hindu households gaining momentum.
The entire controversy is uncalled for. Bloomsbury should have gone ahead and published the book and let the readers decide for themselves.
The intolerance displayed by a certain group is the testimony of the fact that they now stand as caricatures of the values they once fought for.
Your aversion to anything that is against your viewpoint, your narrative is a glaring example of intolerance. The flag bearers of tolerance, debate, and dissent have exposed themselves and how.
Comparisons are rife with other controversial books published in the past like ‘RSS Ki Sazish 26/11’ by Aziz Burney or ‘Gujarat Files’ by Rana Ayub. Their publishers didn’t shy away or breach their contract with the authors as Bloomsbury did. If it, indeed, was a book of lies and lacked veracity, then it should have been left on its own because the truth would have prevailed with rebuttals demolishing falsehoods.
Freedom and Truth, Both Stand Compromised Right Now
Right now, the book in question has attained the highest peaks of popularity. Even if it were to go unnoticed earlier, it will definitely be a smash hit now, no matter who publishes it.
This is what you call ‘Streisand Effect’—the more you try to suppress a piece of information, the more interest it generates.
As I write, the authors of the book have already taken legal action against Bloomsbury for breach of trust and contract, which is well within their rights. They have also found another publisher.
But it is not about the three authors, it is about the Freedom of Speech, which we cry about from our rooftops. A fundamental right, which nobody can take away from any Indian.
The truth about Delhi riots needs to come out, nothing but the truth for the sake of Ankit Sharma’s mother, for the sake of Babu Khan who lost two of his sons in the violence, for the sake of every burnt house, for the sake of 53 lives which were lost. Also for the sake of us Indians who want nothing but a peaceful and prosperous India.
Satyamev Jayate.
(Ambreen Zaidi is the founder of The Changemakers, an NGO for the welfare of ex servicemen. She also writes on contemporary cultural issues. She tweets at @Ambreenzaidi. This is a blog, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quintneither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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