4 months ago
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West Bengal Chief curate Mamata Banerjee connected Thursday (January 22, 2026) said that ever since 2026 acceptable in, she has already written 26 poems connected the “harassment” being caused by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a process she alleged the Election Commission was utilizing to determine the result of elections successful India.
“Logistic discrepancies successful SIR are being witnessed lone successful West Bengal. Every time radical person to basal successful queues for 4 to 5 hours. They are facing problems for matters similar their surnames being spelt arsenic Banerjee arsenic good arsenic Bandopadhyay, Mukherjee arsenic good arsenic Mukhopadhyay. In 1 case, officials wondered however 5 radical tin person the aforesaid parents. Come on, backmost past 1 didn’t travel the Hum Do, Hamare Do (two-child) policy!” Ms. Banerjee said portion inaugurating the International Kolkata Book Fair, which volition spell connected till February 3 with astir 1,100 stalls and the information of 20 countries excluding Bangladesh.
“How tin we get our parents’ commencement certificates? Many of america don’t adjacent cognize erstwhile precisely our parents were born. Back past astir radical were cases of ‘home delivery’. Even (former Prime Minister) Atal Behari Vajpayee himself told maine erstwhile that December 25 was not his birthday. There are galore among america who don’t cognize their existent day of birth. But they are troubling radical [with specified questions], adjacent radical similar Amartya Sen and writer Joy Goswami,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee besides announced the mounting up of a Boi Tirtha (books pilgrimage) by the aforesaid clip adjacent year, erstwhile the Kolkata publication just completes 50 years, and declared a assistance of Rs. 10 crore for the purpose. “I besides write, adjacent though I americium a elemental person, a little important person. I mostly constitute erstwhile I americium travelling. I usually constitute longhand due to the fact that that’s erstwhile thoughts flow. I person written 153 books till day and 9 much volition travel retired this year. Royalty is my lone root of income. I person ne'er accepted a rupee from the government,” the Chief Minister said.
This year, Argentina is the focal taxable state of the just and the country’s ambassador to India, Mariano Agustin Caucino, who was contiguous astatine the event, said Argentina and Kolkata, adjacent though 17,000 km apart, had respective communal elements including football, Tagore (who met Victoria Ocampo successful Buenos Aires) and emotion for literature.
“This humanities milestone volition fortify taste diplomacy and literate collaboration with India, beforehand lit successful Spanish language, and foster transportation betwixt writers, publishers and readers of the 2 countries,” the ambassador said.
Since the publication fair, organised by the Publishers & Booksellers Guild, is the biggest lawsuit successful the metropolis aft Durga Puja, signaling 27 lakh visitors past year, the excitement — among readers arsenic good arsenic publishers — is palpable. “This time, the just looks little similar a spectacle and much similar a quiescent exchange. Readers don’t look to beryllium rushing. They are pausing, spending clip with a book, listening to it earlier deciding. In those unhurried moments, I consciousness a renewed religion successful reading, arsenic thing profoundly personal, astir sacred,” said Sayani Dutta Mitra, managing spouse of Doshor Publications, hours aft the inauguration.
“What I americium going to bargain contiguous is Ruskin Bond’s caller book, The Ghosts of Indian Small Towns, Ghazala Wahab’s The Hindi Heartland, and a postulation of interviews with writer Ashish Lahiri, titled Encounter. Of course, I americium going to look astatine different books too,” said Amartya Bandopadhyay, a chemistry teacher successful a Diamond Harbour school.
(The Hindu is contiguous astatine the International Kolkata Book Fair astatine stall no. E-96).
