Fearing Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal publishers refused to publish Yogi Adityanath’s bestselling biography, says author

Author of best-selling book ‘The Monk Who Became Chief Minister’, a biography of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Shantanu Gupta said that publishers in West Bengal had refused to publish the Bangla version of the same.

He alleged that publishing houses in West Bengal have refrained to publish his book in Bengali due to fears of the Mamata Banerjee administration. This is despite the fact that his bestseller in other Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil. Shantanu Gupta had partnered with activist Debabrata Majhi to get the book translated into Bengali. Majhi had also constituted a team of intellectuals to review the translation, Gupta said.

The manuscript in Bengali was ready to be published by January this year. When Debabrata Majhi approached the mainstream publishers, they expressed their likeness for the book and its prospects. However, they regretted that they could not publish it. Recounting the experience, Shantanu Gupta emphasised, “Publisher after publisher, everyone almost said the same thing. Didi & TMC will not like Yogi Adityanath’s biography to be published in Bengali. Most of them said that they wanted to publish it as it made good business sense. But, they did not want to take any risk.”

Forced by circumstances, activist Debabrata Majhi then published the Bengali translation of Shantanu Gupta’s book through his own organisation ‘Agneeyug.’ Named ‘Sanyasi Theke Mukkyomontri‘, Majhi said that translating the book has been a rewarding experience for him. He has complemented the original author, Shantanu Gupta for his research and providing insights into the life of Yogi Adityanath.

The activist has expressed his disappointment over the fact that mainstream publishers in West Bengal refused to publish it. Debabrata Majhi is the president of SinghaBahini, a socio-religious organization founded by late Tapan Ghosh. He is also the Bjp’s candidate from Chowringhee Vidhan Sabha constituency in West Bengal.

While speaking about the Bengali version of his bestseller, author Shantanu Gupta told Opindia that he is pleased that all Bengali readers can now read his book. He informed that his book consists of four parts, starting from Ajay Singh Bisht from the hills of Uttarakhand, a sadhu in Gorakhnath Mutt to him becoming a Parliamentarian and then a Chief Minister. Gupta regretted that publishers in West Bengal are not free to operate in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal.