Headlines
Woman translator of Kalam's book barred from dais at release function
Thrissur, Sep 26
An event here in Kerala to
release the Malayalam translation of former president late A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam's last book was cancelled on Saturday following protests after the
woman translator was asked to stay away from the dais.
Angry
youth organisations of various political parties and a large number of
women protested after Sreedevi S. Kartha, who translated Kalam's book
Transcendence My Spiritual Experience with Pramukh Swamiji, was asked to
stay off the dais.
On Friday, Kartha posted on Facebook that
the publisher, Current Books, told her that the function's chief guest,
Brahma Vihari Das Swamiji, the representative of Pramukh Swamiji, said
that there should not be any woman on the dais.
Angry protests erupted after the post, forcing the organisers to call off the event.
On
Saturday, Kartha said: "This is nothing but a fascist attitude. I was
invited to take part and later when the Swamiji put up conditions, I was
asked to keep away by the publishers."
Malayalam writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair and Arun Tiwari, the book's co-writer, were among those invited for the function.
Nair
came to know about the protests at the venue and did not turn up, while
Tiwari was present at the function. Swamiji and his associate were
forced to keep away from the venue.