Modi is hated for his suit, Modi is hated for his watches and pens, Modi is hated for his #SelfieWithDaughter campaign, Modi is hated for his international trips, and now, Modi is getting communal hatred for keeping a beard too.
In a promotional campaign for Mamata Banerjee, the Shahi Imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, Maulana Noorur Rahman Barkati declared an award of Rupees 25 lakhs for shaving the head and beard of PM Narendra Modi. The Imam was speaking at a joint conference by the All India Majlis-e-Sura and All India Minority Forum.
As per the Imam, Modi’s beard is insulting religious sentiments of people.
The Imam justified his fatwa by saying, “People who keep beard are mostly religious like maulanas, sadhus, sufis, sikh gurus. But Modi keeping beard is ‘bhondami’ (bluffing). I have no hesitation in saying that he (Modi) is bluffing the country. He (Modi) has lost all his credentials as the Prime Minister.”
The Imam also declared Modi as “communal” and praised West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as the figure of “communal harmony”.
This “communal harmony” of Bengal is very ironical. Only few days back, the figure of “communal harmony” Mamata Banerjee dismissed reports about communal trouble at Dhulagarh, after which many reports came out confirming the riots. This was a welcome change from earlier occasions when the media closed its eyes that when Bengal burned, which arguably gave the courage to likes of Shahi Imam to claim there was communal harmony in the state under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee.
When the Imam declared the award for shaving head and beard of Modi, people present in the room clapped, echoing the idea of communal harmony in the state.
While the ruling TMC has not reacted to the statement, BJP has demanded the arrest of the Imam.
It will be interesting to know what step the state government takes in this case. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj was booked and declared communal for his population control remarks, it will be noteworthy to see how media and administration treat Shashi Imam for giving a religious and communal angle to beard.
On 6th of January, veteran actor Om Puri passed away and was found dead at his Mumbai house on Friday morning. He was 66. It was reported that his friends from the film fraternity confirmed that the actor succumbed to a major heart attack. Although the actor was recently criticised for his anti-army statements, people from all walks of life condoled the death of the legendary actor.
On Saturday however, the police registered an ‘Accidental Death Report’ (ADR) in connection with the actor’s death. Puri had sustained an injury, caused apparently when he collapsed to the floor after the heart attack. A senior police officer said that since he was alone at his house at the time of death and sustained an injury, Oshiwara police registered an ADR as per routine procedure and that as of now there was nothing suspicious about the actor’s death.
However, Pakistani media had other ideas. Pakistanis have multiple reasons to feel a connect with Puri, owing to him playing many Pakistani characters and having visited the country several times to participate in film festivals and other events.
While Puri is loved in Pakistan, there is an Indian who is hated by Pakistanis: Indian NSA Ajit Doval. Anything bad happening is quickly blamed on Doval. In 2015, Pakistanis trended a hashtag “#DovalRunningISIS” and even blamed the emergence of ISIS flags in Kashmir on Doval.
Combine their love for Puri and hate for Doval and you get an amazing story. Picking up from the police investigation into Om Puri’s death, Pakistani media went full retard and came up with an amazing theory:
Two Raw agents named Rajesh and Kalveer, under the instructions of RAW and Ajit Doval, with the coordination of Shiv Sena, RSS and Defence Minister Parrikar, entered Puri’s house in the wee hours of the morning at around 3.30 am and killed him by smothering him with a pillow and strangling his neck.
The same anchor, who in the upper clip has also claimed that Arnab Goswami was earlier a singer who became a journalist, in another show made further startling “revelations”:
One week before the murder, Ajit Doval had called Om Puri to Delhi, where Doval proceeded to profusely abuse Puri. Doval then instructed Puri to go to the village of a martyred BSF soldier in Uttar Pradesh. Puri was told to fake a “crying scene” here to mourn the death of this soldier, to repent for his sins of abusing the army.
He was probably referring to the time when Om Puri visited the Etawah residence of BSF jawan Nitin Yadav, who was martyred in the Baramulla attack, and took part in a ‘hawan’ ceremony organised for the departed soul. That incident though happened on 19 October 2016, more than 2 months before Puri’s death, and not “one week” as claimed by the Pakistani anchor.
This “breaking news” was covered by a Pakistani politician and broadcaster Aamir Liaquat Hussain who was once considered as Musharraf’s blue-eyed boy. Hussain is a semi-disgraced figure in Pakistan, with reports suggesting that Hussain had purchased fake University degrees to contest the 2002 general election. Even Pakistan’s own Dawn.com had mocked this “Islamic evangelist” Hussain for once propagating a theory that the Pakistani cricket team was floundering because their shoes had “green” soles, because green is the colour of Islam and also of Pakistan’s national flag.
We wish Hussain all the best in his fantastic conspiracy theories which we are sure, will provide plenty of laughs to people from all over the world for years to come. Move over Zaid Hamid, you have competition.
After leading Times Now to the top of the TRP charts, Arnab Goswami left the channel to float a new channel, in which he was rumoured to be a stake-holder. The name of the to-be-launched channel was announced as “Republic” but little is known about its launch.
While the channel has not yet launched on out television screens, it appears that they have started their social media campaign by launching accounts across social media platforms. A twitter handle which goes by the username “@republic” tweeted out the following graphic claiming that these are the official social media handles of Arnab’s new venture:
Initially there was confusion among social media users, who were doubting whether this was a genuine handle, or an imposter trying to gain followers using Arnab’s name. This was fuelled also by the fact that the handle was not verified by Twitter.
However, since then, there have been at least 2 signs, that this could be the official handle. Firstly, one of the investors in Republic, Mohandas Pai, retweeted the below tweet of the handle, thus lending credence to the authenticity of the handle:
Republic has also announced its website: “www.republicworld.com/”, which currently sports a “coming soon” banner. Further, it is not an easy task for a random imposter to obtain a simple username such as “Republic” which would have been taken by somebody long time back. As a twitter user found out, this username was originally being used by an Ice Cream brand, and is now being used by Arnab’s venture, meaning the company must have obtained the handle from the previous owner:
Did some research to find out @republic handle originally belonged to Republic Ice Cream. See Twitter link here: https://t.co/9j4uTGUHpH
On a side, note, while social media was enthused by the first look or Goswami’s much awaited project, one social media user seemed particularly miffed with Twitter India. Senior Editor at CNN News 18 Pallavi Ghosh couldn’t contain her insecurities and tweeted this:
The latest rumour on social media suggests that in some Panchayat elections held recently in Gujarat, BJP lost “all 36 seats”, thus ended up embarrassing itself. This assumes significance because if true, it comes less than a year before the assembly elections due near the end of this year. Some have already credited this “defeat” to demonetisation, some to Kejriwal’s rallies, and some to Modi’s magical hold over Gujarat fading. So did BJP really suffer this humiliating defeat?
This “news” came from a tweet from AAP National Executive Member, Preeti Menon, who was previously found defending the man who faked a “gau rakshak” attack on himself, because he “hated hindus”:
BJP lost all 36 seats in Gujarat Panchayat elections. Media has been warned not to let this news spread. Hum kis din kaam aayenge? ?
According to news reports available, around 9000 panchayats did go to elections recently in Gujarat. A report dated 29th December 2016, claimed that results for 2,891 out of 8,624 gram panchayats had come out by 29th, and as of that date, both BJP and opposition Congress claimed their respective victories. A more recent report though, dated January 2nd, reported that to buttress its claim that over 80 per cent candidates devoted to BJP won the elections BJP felicitated “more than 8,000 newly elected sarpanches”, reportedly sporting BJP sashes, in Gandhinagar on Sunday.
Having said the above, it is important to note that Gujarat Gram Panchayat polls are not fought on party symbols as candidates need to fight on their personal capacity and each voter is required to cast two votes, one to elect sarpanch and another for electing panchayat member for his ward. However, an informal backing from a political party is not abnormal.
Coming back to Menon’s tweet, it’s very amusing since there is almost no basis for her quoting this mystery figure of just 36 seats and claiming them to be “all” the seats. Even the claim of BJP losing “all seats”, is highly questionable given the above.
But Menon may not even be referring to above mentioned polls, because a similar tweet, with similar figures, was also shared by Congress National Spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi in November itself:
A tweet from November can certainly not refer to any elections which took place in December 2016. Luckily, this tweet gives more information as it clarifies that they were not the “panchayat” elections, as claimed by Menon, but the Gujarat Unjha Nagarpalika Elections.
But surprise surprise, although the above screenshot exists, as of today, the tweet of so-called “activist” Shabnam Hashmi has been deleted:
So was her claim that BJP lost all the 36 seats to Congress true?
No No No. Firstly, these polls took place in December 2015, more than a year ago. Secondly, BJP officially did not field any candidate in Unjha Municipality elections while Congress had fielded 5 candidates. Both parties though maintained they had put up “independents”. Eventually 35 of the total 36 elected members in the civic body were Independents, while Congress managed to win one seat. Again, it is numerically impossible for Congress to win all 36 seats as claimed by Hashmi, when they officially fielded only 5 candidates.
To recap:
AAP member Menon’s tweet was false on the following counts:
1. No “Gujarat Panchayat elections” took place for 36 seats
2. BJP did not lose “all 36 seats” of such non-existent Gujarat Panchayat elections
3. The media is not reporting it now because no such elections ever took place, and not because they have “been warned not to let this news spread”
The remotest connection to “36” seats in Gujarat, are the Gujarat Unjha Municipality elections which took place in December 2015.
Shabnam Hashmi’s now deleted tweet shared by Congress spokesperson Chaturvedi is again false since:
1. BJP officially did not field any candidate
2. Only 1 Congress candidate won as against the “36” originally claimed by Hashmi
3. The remaining 35 were all independents.
All in all, this is a deceitful web spun on half-truths and whole lies with not as much as a grain of truth in them. As far the most recent municipality elections which took place in Gujarat on 29 November 2016, during the peak pain period of demonetisation, BJP won 107 seats out of the 123 municipal and district panchayat seats while Congress could win only 16 seats. Not only did BJP retain control over municipalities, it snatched Gondal taluka panchayat from the Congress winning 18 out of 22 seats.
Words of advice to AAP and Congress propagandists working in tandem: work harder.
A couple of days back, some people on Twitter posted about speculations over Hindustan Times closing down several of its city editions. On the same day, reports claimed that Hindustan Times had decided to shut down its business bureau. Now it appears that both the speculations about the paper shutting down some of its city editions and its business bureau are correct, as the media company has not issued any denial so far.
As per a ‘leaked’ letter being circulated, the newspaper has decided to close down its Kolkata, Bhopal, Indore, and Ranchi editions. It’s not yet clear what happens to the journalists employed for these editions i.e. whether they would be absorbed into the main business or would be laid off. If chatter among the media community is to be believed, most probably they are going to lose their jobs.
The letter says that this decision of discontinuing the aforementioned city editions has been taken to meet the changing consumption trends and to focus on the digital business.
The blame for this potential job loss and a feared slowdown in the print media industry has been put on – and no prizes for guessing – Narendra Modi. Yes, most of the commentary around the development blames ‘demonetisation’ for it. And when there is an opportunity to blame Modi, how can Arvind Kejriwal miss it? So he too joined the debate.
Blaming Modi is a good intellectual exercise, but efforts should be made that it doesn’t become too lazy. No data, such as a drop in sales volumes of newspapers or advertising revenues going down post demonetisation, has been cited by anyone, but somehow it has been concluded that demonetisation is to be blamed.
Vineet Jain, Managing Director of Times Group – the competitor of Hindustan Times that never misses an opportunity to show how the Times of India is taking away all the market share and business (and perhaps ‘forcing’ it to cut costs by laying off employees?) – tweeted “supporting” Hindustan Times and blaming demonetisation. Not just that, he even demanded tax breaks from the government for the print industry. Again, no logic or proof offered over how demonetisation was killing print or the newspapers.
Without data, even I won’t say that demonetisation is NOT to be blamed. But one thing I can say with 100% certainty, is that demonetisation is not the ONLY thing to be blamed. The crisis in the newspaper industry, and by extension in the journalism business, goes beyond demonetisation, or for that matter, beyond the Indian economy.
In last year August, US based comedian and media critic John Oliver had aired an episode on his weekly show Last Week Tonight that focussed on journalism. In the show, he showed how various newspapers in the USA were shutting down and argued that the trend threatened to damage the way entire journalism industry functioned. He painted a gloomy picture, although in a funny way, of the future of journalism.
His show re-triggered a debate that already had been raging for many years – why are people not paying to get news? Is the print dying? And if so, can journalism survive entirely in electronic and digital forms?
Had Obama or any other head of a western country announced any demonetisation that led to newspapers being shut down in the west?
The way media consumption habits are changing rapidly, it was given that the print industry was staring at an uncertain future. Between 2008-2010, 166 newspapers had to shut down in the US. The decline has continued and it’s the same story in most the western countries, because digital adoption was faster than one thought. As per Pew Research Center, just 5% of Americans in the age group 18-29 got their news from print in 2016:
Newspapers are dying, because there is no future.
One thought that in a country like India, newspapers and the print industry were relatively safer as the internet penetration and consumption habits were presumably different from those observed in the US. But one thing was clear, this technological impact on print will be felt in India too, though with a time lag.
And now that the impact is being felt, people are copping out by blaming demonetisation and Modi. More dangerous is that they are now looking for state support e.g. MD of Times Group asking for tax cuts. He is virtually asking for a bailout.
This is not the time to blame Modi but a time to address some fundamental questions that almost everyone in the media industry is struggling with.
It is clear that print (the physical platform made of paper) can’t survive in the digital world. The youngsters don’t like holding and reading newspapers, but they are interested in news and they consume it online, mostly on their mobile phones. As a result, everyone has been saying that digital is the future, but can digital bring the kind of revenues print could bring?
It fact, the moot question is – is the ‘business’ of journalism viable in the modern times?
Let’s remember that news gathering and dissemination – the ‘business’ of journalism – was a ‘monopoly’ on the print platform. Virtually nothing else but ‘news’ could be printed in a daily broadsheet format. A business house would know the cost (of news gathering, printing, and distributing) and could plan for a revenue strategy (ad rate per square inch and some subscription) that will cover its cost and contribute to its margins.
Only the news media houses will get into this competition to define this ad rate and subscription rates, for only news could be published and distributed in daily printed-on-paper format. But same is not the case on TV or digital. Both the technologies are fit for a variety on content on their platforms that compete with news.
Which is why ‘journalism’ faced its first major challenge when 24-hours news channels – that were frowned upon by puritans – were launched. Critics claimed that journalism was dumbed-down. Yes it was, because it had to compete with saas-bahu, live cricket matches, reality shows, etc. The ‘business’ of journalism on TV is surviving because TV is still relevant as a technological platform, and because journalism adapted to saas-bahu (all trashy political fights), live cricket matches (live telecast of political rallies), reality shows (the prime time debates) and so on. Furthermore, television as a platform is regulated, it’s not easy to launch a TV channel, definitely not a TV news channel, that can undercut revenues. So the business of journalism is surviving on TV, though in a debatable form.
Now the digital challenge is even more complex. The content and experience available here – for free – is much more varied, and the technology is changing fast. The entry barriers for new players are virtually non-existent.
So what happens to the ‘business’ of journalism now? Will people pay for news like they pay for Netflix or for so many mobile apps and games? And if they do, will that be enough to cover costs?
But instead of debating such points, the media honchos and critics are busy blaming demonetisation. In such a scenario, not only newspapers will die, journalism itself won’t survive.
Nonetheless, OpIndia.com will prefer to debate the aforementioned issues instead of getting into a blame game over demonetisation. We will publish articles analysing some of the points raised in this article about business of journalism. If you have a view on them and would want to write on the same, please reach out to us.
Let’s get some op-eds before we write the obituary for the print.
Delhi’s Health Minister ‘Satinder‘ Jain’s political health seems to have received another blow after he received another IT notice in a Hawala case. The notice was issued to him on 26th December by an Additional Commissioner based in Delhi.
He was previously issued summons in September after the companies in which he held substantial equities, were found to have link with Kolkata firms under investigation for Black Money.
According to Dainik Jagaran, companies named Paryas Infosolutions, Indo Metallmpex, Akinchan Developers, Ideal Estate, and Manglayatan were involved in buying 200 acres of land during the 2010-14 period using hawala money. These plots were located around North-West Delhi near unauthorized dwellings, and were purchased in the hope that the price would increase whenever the colonies get regularized.
In one of our earlier articles, we had established the fact that Satyendra Jain held substantial shares in companies named Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan. However, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015 after he became Minister in the Kejriwal government.
As reported here, these companies used to send cash to their Kolkata counterparts and these Kolkata based companies would later, under the pretext of buying shares, would route back the amount using legal financial means. In total the companies related to Satyendra reportedly laundered money to the tune of 16.39 crores from 2010 to 2014.
Apart from the Hawala fiasco, the possibility of conflict of interest arises against Satyendra Jain due to the fact that his shares in the companies are still in the family and the colonies haven’t been regularized yet, as revealed by the Company Representative of Indo Metallmpex to the IT Officials in 2015.
Incidentally the Kejriwal government is in favour of regularizing colonies and had announced its intention to regularize 495 colonies in 2015.
In April last year, reports had emerged that the Italy based helicopter manufacturing company AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica had paid around 50 crore rupees to Indian journalists as ‘bribes’ to secure the contract for supplying helicopters to the Government of India. This is (in)famously known as the “chopper scam”.
The contract worth around 3500 crores rupees was awarded to the AgustaWestland in 2010. However, the contract was frozen three years later when the CEO of Finmeccanica was arrested in Italy and the information about bribes became public. It was alleged that a total of 360 crore rupees were paid as bribes to various persons and entities in India. The then UPA government ordered an inquiry into the scam and the contract was cancelled in January 2014.
Various rumours and speculations regarding the names of journalists who would have received money from AgustaWestland has been doing the rounds of internet in the last couple of years. Rajdeep Sardesai had sent abuses to many Twitter users last year when his name was dragged into the controversy. These is no official word or list on who these “corrupt” journalists could be.
But things could change this year. Earlier this week, Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition that argued that journalists should also be probed in the scam, and today LiveMint reported that CBI was all set to interrogate the journalists suspected of taking bribes from AgustaWestland.
This leads us to the question whether the investigation agencies can only interrogate the journalists or even frame charges against them for corruption?
Now the issue here is – a journalist is an employee with a private firm, not a public officer, while the anti-corruption laws are applicable only to public officers in India.
If a journalist takes money from AgustaWestland and shows it as his or her “income from other sources” and even pays tax on it, does that make him or her safe? Legally, a ‘bribe’ is a crime only when a public officer takes it.
Recall the IPL match fixing case? No corruption charges could be framed against cricketers because cricketers are not government employees. They were safe even after taking ‘bribe’ to underperform in cricket matches. In fact, the police could not find any relevant law under which the cricketers could be tried.
So can journalists too escape punishment due to such loophole?
Fortunately, the answer is no.
Supreme Court lawyer Ishkaran Bhandari told OpIndia.com that once a public officer is involved in the whole chain of bribe giving and taking, the journalists could be deemed a part of the entire conspiracy and thus charges could be framed under the Section 120(B) of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and punishment under the Prevention of Corruption act could be awarded to them as well.
“Not just that, since foreign money is involved here, relevant sections of the anti money laundering act could also come into picture,” Bhandari explained, “So if any journalist is thinking that being a private citizen or a private employee can save them, they are mistaken.”
So it appears that this won’t be another Radia tapes kind of controversy, where journalists will go scot free as unethical behaviour doesn’t hurt the professional careers of Indian journalists. This time, it is illegal.
Indian media’s reporting standards are by and large dubious to say the least. Virtually every day some or the other media house has some or the other “erroneous” report. We have been tracking most such reports here. But rarely do multiple media houses go wrong on the same day. And today, 5th January 2017 was that day. Multiple media house’s put out stories which ranged from the banal to the bizarre and social media had a field day:
1. No Business Standard, Sundar Pichai did not mean “Air India” when he said “AI”:
If Business Standard can interpret AI as Air India, then I know another way we can interpret BS. pic.twitter.com/kILLF5tB4Y
The window given for regular deposits of old currency notes under demonetisation expired on 30th December 2016. There have been numerous attempts by various commentators to declare the entire demonetisation exercise a failure, but somehow none of these op-eds (which have mostly been short on facts), have cut any ice with the public. Now as the window has ended, a new parameter is being raised to declare that the demonetisation scheme failed.
As reported by Swarajyamag.com, in the last couple of days, some media outlets have run speculative reports claiming that most of the demonetised currency has come back into the banking system. A Bloomberg report said yesterday that Indians have deposited 97 per cent of the demonetised notes till 30 December. Business Standard report claimed that the figure was 94 per cent.
The Indian Express based its post on the Bloomberg’s data and asked whether: “Demonetisation complete failure?” since 97% of the notes came back. No other argument was put forth. Leftist site thewire.in also made similar arguments, albeit with slightly different figures. Firstpost’s Sandipan Sharma too toed a similar line:
But, on current evidence, it seems most of the money may actually end up getting legally tendered in banks, entering the system as white money. Whither kala dhan?
So why do they say that demonetisation has failed since most of the cash has come back into the system? This claim could partly be based on this theory, which was first started by the media itself:
Currency Notes issued by the RBI are RBI’s liabilities to the bearer of the notes. Since due to demonetisation, after 30 December certain notes stop being legal tender, they will no be RBI’s liabilities any more, and a waiver of liabilities would result in an accounting profit for the RBI, which could then be passed on as dividend to the Government of India.
In early December itself, the RBI had itself stated that it had absolutely no plans to pass on as dividend to the government, the amount of money that does not come back into the system once the deadline of the demonetisation exercise expires on December 30, 2016. This one statement by RBI should have ideally shut up all those who claimed that a higher percentage of notes returning to the system would mean a bigger failure for demonetisation. But then, that would need them to be honest.
The other argument made to show that a higher percentage of money returning to banks is a failure of the scheme is the one placed by the likes of Sharma in Firstpost: “Whither kala dhan”, meaning, if all the money came back into the banks, it means there was no “black money”. The argument is based on the stupid notion that any money deposited into the banks is by default “white”.
The fact though is, “black” money can turn “white” only once you pay taxes on it. As such, all the money deposited in banks will have to be explained by the depositors by showing the source of income (on which tax has already been paid) or, the depositors will have to now pay tax on these deposits. And there in lies the key: contrary to what is being argued, a higher amount of money coming back can actually be good:
1. As explained above, every penny deposited will have to be explained and the appropriate tax on it will have to be paid. The tax can vary from 30% (regular income) to 50% (under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana) to even upwards of 80% (in case the depositor is caught cheating the tax department)
2. The above is just the one-time gain. There is also a recurring gain. Once a person deposits his cash into the bank, he indirectly alerts the tax department that he is capable of earning that much money over a few years. Take for example a trader who was never filing taxes previously. He now deposits say Rs 25 lakhs in cash into his accounts. Assuming he has accumulated such cash over 5 years, his annual net savings would be Rs 5 lakhs odd, and his annual income could be more than that. Till now, the tax department had no clue that this trader could earn such income. Now they know. And the tax department doesn’t forget. Not only will the trader have to pay tax on Rs 25 lakhs, henceforth, he will be on the radar of the tax department. Assuming that he goes back to his old ways and doesn’t file taxes in the future, now the tax department at least knows about him and knows how to catch him. There can never be any estimate of this recurring incremental tax being earned by the Government.
There are other arguments too, which would debunk this claim by media that a higher amount of cash returned is a sign that demonetisation has failed, for example lower interest rates etc, but these two key factors will have to be kept in mind. End of the day, the cabal which wants to declare demonetisation as a failure will have to work harder in the face of hard facts.
An event in Kolkata that was planned to discuss atrocities by Pakistan in the Balochistan region and its crimes in Kashmir was cancelled by the proposed venue (a club) citing “unavoidable circumstances” to ensure “cordial atmosphere”.
The event titled “The saga of Balochistan and Kashmir – what the world needs to know” was to have Pakistan born Canadian commentator Tarek Fatah, retired Major General GD Bakshi, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, Baloch activist Brahamdagh Bugti, Kashmiri activist Sushil Pandit and others as participants and speakers.
According to a report published by India Today, the organisers of the event feel that the club authorities were pressurised by the Kolkata Police to deny permission for the event as it involves speakers who are known for their “anti-Pakistan” rhetoric.
The report says that the club authorities forced the organisers to drop the word “Kashmir” from the event poster as it could lead to unrest in the state. And finally, the club cancelled the event itself.
Organisers say that the club was told by police that the event could hurt the sentiments of a particular community and could result in a law and order situation.
It is not yet clear how discussing crimes of Pakistan could have disturbed law and order or communal harmony in Kolkata, but some believe that the presence of Tarek Fatah, who is known to be bluntly anti-Pakistan and anti-Islamism, could have triggered the cancellation of the event.
Tarek Fatah took to Twitter to protest this cancellation, which he termed as a decision taken under pressure from Muslim fundamentalists:
It is not for the first time when Kolkata has seen a cancellation of event under pressure of Muslim groups.
Earlier in 2012, Kolkata Book Fair had cancelled the release of Taslima Nasreen’s book while in the following year, author Salman Rushdie was asked not to come to the city to attend an event. In December 2013, a TV channel had to cancel airing of a TV serial that was based on Taslima’s book after Muslim groups staged violent protests in the streets of Kolkata.
