Cops transferred over row at Erode book festival

COIMBATORE: An inspector and a constable have been transferred following the controversy over display of posters on some Tamil books at Erode Book Festival 2023.

Organised jointly by Makkal Sinthanai Peravai and district administration, a few stalls had display of posters on books, ‘Hindutva Fascism; Vergalum, Viluthugalum’ and ‘Arthamatra Hindu Matham’ written by Manjai Vasanthan of Dravidar Kazhagam.

As it began to spread out in social media that books against a specific religion had been kept on sale, Erode North station inspector Shanmugam asked the sellers to remove the posters from their stall.

This incident drew criticism from Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) general secretary K Ramakrishnan. He sought to know, on whose instigation the police forced the organisers to remove the posters of two books, which were actually not banned by the government. The TPDK leader also sought action against the cop as these books are sold everywhere and also find their place in book festivals. Following an inquiry, SP G Jawahar shunted the inspector to the control room, while special branch constable Meiyappan was shifted to armed reserve for not reporting the incident to officials.

Makkal Sinthanai Peravai president T Stalin Gunasekaran said to the media that books banned by the government and books published without copyright were not sold in the fair. The 12-day exhibition with 230 stalls displaying a huge line up of books will be open to the public till August 15.