The Bangla Academy has addressed the controversy over the alleged denial of a stall to Adarsh Prokshoni at this year’s Ekushe Book Fair.
In a statement on Sunday, the organizer of the event said no stalls have been allotted yet, which will be done later through a lottery.
Mehboob Rahman, CEO of Adarsh Prokshona, accused the academy of taking an ‘anti-constitutional stand’ against freedom of expression.
Quoting a member of the Mela committee, he said the academy blocked its allocation because of three books: Fawaiz Ahmad Tayyeb’s Theory of Mediocrity by Faham Abdus Salam and Zia Hasan’s Response by Faham Abdus Salam. Faham is the son-in-law of BNP general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
In response, the Bangla Akademi said that the management committee of the fair looked into Faham’s book and found that it did not comply with the rules of the event.
The Akademi later contacted Mehboob on telephone to urge him to settle the matter and also issued a written statement to the effect that the publisher would not be allowed to exhibit the book unless the rules of the fair were followed. .
However, Mehboob insisted that he would not accept the committee’s decision and said that the fair’s policies were in conflict with the constitution. He also threatened to take the academy to court for not allotting a stall to Adarsh.
Explaining the decision to ban the book, the academy said it contained “vulgar”, “distasteful” and “sarcastic” references to Bengali ethnicity, the judiciary, the Constitution, the liberation struggle, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his historic March 7 speech. statements are included. , and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
While the Constitution guarantees free speech subject to reasonable restrictions, the Bangla Academy said these portions of the book are not protected under Article 39(2).
The Ekushi Book Fair is set to begin as per tradition from February 1, as the coronavirus pandemic delayed the inauguration of the month-long event in the last two years.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will personally inaugurate the fair and it will go on till February 28. The venue of the main fair will be in the Academy campus as usual.