Bloomsbury India has decided to withdraw the publication of the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ by authors of Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. In a statement, the publication house cited a ‘virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors’ as one of the reasons for its decision.
Bloomsbury India said that they had planned to release the book, a factual account based on investigation and interviews conducted by the authors, in September 2020 but they have rescinded their decision.
https://twitter.com/akanksha_kumar3/status/1297117001530273792?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe publication house further added, “However, in view of very recent events including a virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors, with participation by parties of whom the Publishers would not have approved, we have decided to withdraw publication of the book.”
Even as the Bloomsbury informed that they are withdrawing the book, it was marked as unavailable on e-commerce site Amazon. Before that, the book was available for pre-order, and a large number of people had pre-ordered the book ahead of its planned launch in next month.
The decision to withdraw the book came after a left-wing outrage mob led by prominent ‘intellectuals’ on social media pressurised the publication house to take the decision. The organisers of the outrage mob included personalities such as controversial actress Swara Bhasker and other eminent ‘journalists’ and ‘intellectuals’.
https://twitter.com/meenakandasamy/status/1297084937808510976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/Broke_Bookworm/status/1296815275761758208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/HartoshSinghBal/status/1296813464476741632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/ReallySwara/status/1296821063217709057?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe South Asia Solidarity Initiative, which has links to Islamists, also jumped on the bandwagon to bully Bloomsbury India into withdrawing the book. It had recently protested against ‘Hindu fascists’ at Times Square in New York on the occasion of the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan.
https://twitter.com/SASIinNYC/status/1296844943500214275?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwCongress supporters, too, bullied Bloomsbury India into withdrawing the book.
https://twitter.com/SaketGokhale/status/1296792765552984065?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe event that was cited as one of the reasons for the withdrawal of the book was to be attended by BJP leader Kapil Mishra and OpIndia Editor-in-Chief Nupur Sharma, which caused great outrage among the Leftist mob. Even as Bloomsbury India caved into pressure from the outraged mob comprised of liberals, Congress supporters and Islamists, it claimed that it supports free speech. It said that it withdrew the Delhi Riots book because it “has a deep sense of responsibility towards society”.