Kolkata: Hundreds of citizens marched through central Kolkata on Saturday, October 31, in a 'Walk for Books' procession from College Square, protesting the attacks on bookstalls set up during Durga Puja, The Hindu reported. The march was held without any political banner, and citizens, activists, professors and politicians walked together with books in their hands.

Source: The Hindu

Indian Express Bangla reported that artists, intellectuals and common people joined the procession, and that the protest was expressed through songs, poems and cultural performances. According to reports carried by The Telegraph, the march began at the Vidyasagar statue at College Square, participants carried a banner reading 'Books versus Bulldozer', and many held up books by authors including Rabindranath Tagore, B. R. Ambedkar, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay and Satyajit Ray.

Retired bureaucrat Jawhar Sircar, 75, joined the march weeks after knee-replacement surgery, according to The Telegraph's report. The participants blamed right-wing groups and the BJP for the attacks on the stalls, an allegation the march organisers levelled against the ruling party's supporters; the BJP has not accepted that charge in the reports cited here.

Source: Indian Express Bangla

Why the march was held

The march was the latest public response to the Durga Puja-season attacks on temporary bookstalls run by Left parties, which Awaaz Punjab reported earlier in October. On the night of October 17, supporters formed a human chain at Jadavpur when a bulldozer was brought in to remove a stall, and stalls of the CPI(M), CPI and SUCI (Communist) were targeted in Kolkata and the districts, The Hindu reported in its explainer on the controversy.

CPI(M) Kolkata district secretary Kallol Majumdar has said that of 119 bookstalls set up by the party in Kolkata this Puja, over 30 faced disruption or were vandalised, with incidents reported from Rashbehari, Lake Market, Behala, Haridevpur and Nagerbazar, among other places, according to The Times of India. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had publicly opposed Left parties setting up stalls at Puja pandals, while some senior BJP and RSS figures also condemned the attacks on the stalls.

Source: The Times of India

Indian Express Bangla also reported that the CPI(M) has taken an initiative to start book fairs in every neighbourhood, taking the campaign beyond the Puja season. No incident was reported during Saturday's march.