It’s time for Booksellers’ & Publishers’ Guild (‘Guild’ for short) to say goodbye to Maidan for all time to come. They cannot hold book fair in Maidan any more. The Kolkata HC yesterday handed out a landmark judgment to save Maidan from the damage caused on account of book fair.
That the Guild is on a sticky wicket is apparent because if it felt that the Kolkata HC judgment is not fair, it would have declared its intention of going to Supreme Court. It demonstrates what most people already know, which is that it was simply piggybacking the might of the state government with aid from some intellectuals.
Now that the HC has ruled against the Guild, it does not have the courage to go to SC because it knows it is at fault. It will therefore not be wrong to say that the HC has put an end to a farce going on for some time in the name of sanskriti, as if sanskriti is above the logic of science and the law of land (see my post, Some people’s concern = Others’ misery).
It is the environmentalist, Subhas Dutta, who deserves credit for making the Maidan free from all melas. He was also instrumental to get the Rabindra Sarobar freed from misuse by the settlers along Sealdah – Budge Budge railway line, where in the end the settlers were evicted. [Picture source on left]
Subhas Dutta is a relentless crusader. He is not one to rest on past laurels, and he doesn’t seem to tow any political line. In the book fair case, Subhas Dutta was helped by eminent law-practitioners, Arunabha Ghosh and Kalyan Bandopadhyay.
One hopes, if not tomorrow, one day it would be when even political rallies and religious congregation (like that of Gangasagar bound pilgrims) too would be banned in Maidan. It is then that the green there will heave a sigh of relief.
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