A day after it went viral for all the wrong reasons, a new book has been called back by its publishers. Bloomsbury India has decided to withdraw publication of a book on the Delhi riots of February 2020 amid widespread condemnation from netizens.
At the time of publishing this article, the book remains listed on Amazon, but orders cannot be placed. According to the description, "Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story provides an explosive revelation of the plot behind the riots, how they were planned and executed, how weapons were procured and stockpiled, and exactly what happened."
To give a bit of context, the social media outrage began after a now viral poster claimed that BJP leader Kapil Mishra who had made a rather incendiary speech in the run-up to the riots was a guest of honour for the book launch. While there has been no official allegations or sanctions against him, many were startled at this gesture. Later however the publishing house distanced itself from the same, stating that their logo was being used without their permission. But as many noted, they were indeed the publishers of the book, launch event notwithstanding.
While the organisation seems to have attempted damage control, even posting another book on how Shaheen Bagh went from a "protest to a movement" to its social media platforms, netizens were not pleased. And it would seem that the backlash has led to a need for more drastic action.
The update was posted to Twitter by several people including Newslaundry journalist Akanksha Kumar. Bloomsbury India has cited the recent controversy in their statement announcing the withdrawl.
"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," the statement reportedly, said.
Further details awaited.
