New Delhi: Intolerance debate, 'love jihad', ethics in journalism are some of the subjects that Rashtriya Sahitya Sangam, a group of publishing houses run by people associated with RSS, hopes to shed light on through books at the World Book Fair 2018. The book fair is organised by the National Book Trust in the city.
Hum Asahashud Log (We Intolerant People) by Lokendra Singh was released on Monday. The writer says that Mohammad Akhlaq's lynching was the trigger behind the book. Akhlaq, the Uttar Pradesh resident, was beaten to death by a mob in September 2015 on suspicion of consuming beef. Singh also spoke about Gauri Lankesh's murder and said how 'these movements are part of the fear'.
“For past three years the country has been in the grip of intolerance debate – there was award wapsi by a select group of people motivated by their own interest. I realised that their problem is not with any person or any issue, but with their fear of losing credibility and ground. With every passing day that select group realised it is losing its identity and to salvage that they came up with the stunt of returning the awards. They realised that people are becoming nationalists and are moving towards bharatiyata so in order to counter that shift towards the Indianness they came up with intolerance debate," said Singh.
Singh feels that there has been a single narrative for the last 70 years and since "the environment is politically in our favour so we can present our view point".
Ek Mukhauta Aisa Bhi (A Mask Like This) by Dr Vandana Gandhi will be released at the Book Fair on Wednesday. The book deals with the subject of 'love jihad'. The book is a collection of 15 stories which deal with real life victims of love jihad.
Jihad’ essentially means struggle or battle in Islam for a religious cause. So ‘Love Jihad’ essentially means when one causes the other to convert to Islam through a false hope of love and marriage. This practice is commonly seen as Muslim men pretending to be in love with non-Muslim women with an intention of converting them. While so far there is no proof of any such organised practice, the term has found its way into popular culture.
"I have used the real life stories but given the characters a fictional name. In these stories we will see how they trap girls – if a girl is emotionally affected they will use a different strategy to get close to her, and if she needs help to go home they will offer a lift on their bike. These boys are well-supported in the campaign and also get paid Rs 200 per day for petrol so that they can impress the girl with their bike. Some boys take on Hindu names, while some tie kalawa and wear tilak. The real picture they present is of a shubh chintak, hitaishi, which is false," said Gandhi.
Adi Patrakar Naarad Ka Sanchar Darshan
Speaking about the book, Singh says: "The book has many aspects of news value, news selection and news formatting as practised by Naarad. He was someone who just gave soochna, and there was contamination in that communication, which is what we need in good journalism.”
For the first time, Jammu and Kashmir's Adhyyan Kendra is also participating in the Book Fair to reach out to “authentic audience to counter prevalent perception". There will also be books on Raja Hari Singh’s stand on accession to India, documents on Article 370 and Article 35 (A) etc.
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