Literature and freedom of expression as well as freedom of press go hand in hand. Yet at this Chennai Book Fair, both were gruesomely muzzled. First a journalist’s and then a writer’s freedom was trammelled.
A Chennai-based journalist was arrested on January 12 for displaying a book written by him at the Chennai Book Fair. V Anbazhagan had displayed books that exposed corruption within the state government. He was asked to vacate the stall after having been issued a notice which states that selling ‘anti-government’ books was in violation of their prescribed guidelines.
This act of the state government was not very well received by the journalist community. The Chennai Press Council condemned the arrest and demanded that Anbazhagan be released. The Council said that Anbazhagan only asked for the reason he was being asked to vacate the stall and he was given one in writing, after which he left the venue. The police complaint, however, alleges that the journalist attacked the Book Fair management after they asked him to vacate the stall. Police have filed a case under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 249(b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, Ballard or words, in or near any public place) and 506(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC.
The book that Anbazhagan had displayed was a booklet that consisted a compiled version of the RTI queries filed by him and responses he had received over the years. His RTI queries had exposed the state government’s corruption in various departments, including the Smart City Project.
A few days later, a well-known writer, Arumugam Tamilan, who was addressing an event at the same Book Fair was asked to cut his speech short as he was making references to Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Immediately after his speech was stopped, a group of people from the audience raised this issue with the book fair management and demanded an explanation.
The organisers have however given the reason that he was asked to cut short his speech because time was running out. The President of Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), RS Shanmugham, said, “The police had given time for the book fair authorities to have their activities till 9 pm. But yesterday when Tamilan [the writer] was giving his speech, it was around 9:05-9:10 pm which is why he was asked to wrap up. There was no other problem.”
This incident angered the writer community as well as activists in Chennai. Both incidents are clearly indicative of the rising intolerance of dissenting voices and the beginning of an era that curbs freedom of press and justifies it.
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