Not allowing Taslima's book grave injustice: Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi. File photo

Magsaysay Award winner Mahasweta Devi said here on Friday that not allowing controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen's book to be released at the scheduled venue at the 36 Kolkata International Book Fair was a “grave injustice.”

“For a long time I have seen that Taslima writes a book and then faces protests…. Taslima Nasreen does not do anything more than write books,” Mahasweta Devi said, adding there was a need for public opinion to be mobilised against these incidents.

“We can never accept that someone writes a book and is punished for writing the book,” she added.

Mahasweta Devi was at the book fair to release a book,

Bhooya Sangharsher Hatya (Fake Encounter Killings), written by social activist Sujato Bhadra.

Ms. Nasreen's book, Nirbasan (Exile) — the seventh volume of an autobiographical series — could not be released at the scheduled venue at the book fair on February 1 after the organisers of the fair made a last minute cancellation.