Publisher withdraws book on riots, authors launch it online
Bloomsbury India strongly supports freedom of speech but also has a deep sense of responsibility towards society. BLOOMSBURY INDIA STATEMENT
NEW DELHI: The publishers of a book on communal riots in northeast Delhi announced the withdrawal of the publication on Saturday, a day after an event proclaiming its virtual launch kicked up a controversy.
In a statement, Bloomsbury India said: “Bloomsbury India had planned to release Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story in September, a book purportedly giving a factual report on the riots in Delhi in February 2020, based on investigations and interviews conducted by the authors. However, in view of very recent events including a virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors, with participation by parties of whom the publishers would not have approved, we have decided to withdraw publication of the book. Bloomsbury India strongly supports freedom of speech but also has a deep sense of responsibility towards society.”
The announcement came as the authors held a virtual book launch event with BJP leader Kapil Mishra – the guest of honour – saying the “book is public now” on Twitter. BJP national general secretary Bhupendra
Yadav launched the book.
“Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story tells us the liberals are not fighting for right to freedom of expression but the freedom to speak anything they want even that which harms the country,” Yadav wrote on Twitter.
While Mishra has not been charged by the police, he delivered a speech ahead of the riots -between pro- and anti-citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters that snowballed into a Hindumuslim communal riot -- that people would take matters into their own hands if the police did not remove anti-caa demonstrators from near the Jafrabad Metro station.
In response to the publishing house withdrawing the publication of the book, Mishra said, “I would like to congratulate the authors of this book because they have managed to bring out such an authentic account that the custodians of freedom of speech, who even considered demeaning our motherland and our gods and goddesses as freedom of speech, got scared of this book and started leading a smear campaign against it.”
Monica Arora, who has co-authored the book with Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra, said they had been in touch with Bloomsbury for the past three months. “The contract with the publishers was signed after we sent them the manuscript two months ago based on our ground report. After exchange of several emails on regular basis recommending edits, over one month ago the final draft was approved. They published 100 books and gave it to us. We informed them of the launch. There was no problem before Friday when leftistfascists scuttled my freedom of speech,” she said.
“Bloomsbury India had no problems with the book. But after people started tagging Bloomsbury UK, they pressured Bloomsbury India and we were told that they might be withdrawing from publication. This is breach of trust and contract. Is it ethical to crumble under social media pressure?” she asked.