BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday claimed the Bangla Academy is being used as a tool to suppress the opinion of the opposition.
The BNP leader also expressed concern, anger, protest and condemnation over the fact that Adarsha Prakashani was not allotted any stall for publishing dissenting books in the upcoming Ekushey Book Fair organized by the Bangla Academy.
He voiced his protest in a statement sent to the media on Thursday afternoon.
In the statement, Fakhrul said: “The Ekushey Book Fair of the Bangla Academy has been considered a suitable place for the practice of free speech for ages.”
The incident of allotting no stall for Adarsha Prakashani is very alarming and reprehensible, said the BNP leader.
“This incident is a blatant interference with the freedom of expression. We strongly condemn and protest this heinous incident,” said Mirza Fakhrul.
He said that the book fair is not a government or a single party's asset. Rather, it was considered the fair of everyone's life regardless of party affiliation. But this time, the Bangla Academy has been used as a tool to suppress dissent by not allotting the stall of Adarsha Prakashani, the publishing house of more than 600 books, for three dissenting books.”
Though the Bangla Academy was established because of dissent, now it is being used for suppressing dissent and to take away the freedom of expression, said the BNP leader.
He further mentioned in the statement: "I call upon the Bangla Academy authorities not to politicize the Ekushey Book Fair. At the same time, I call for the allocation of stalls for other publishers including Adarsha Prakashani, who publish dissenting books, without creating obstacles in the allocation of stalls for them, so that the book fair can be reconsidered a fair for everyone, regardless of party affiliation or opinion.”
The Bangla Academy allotted no stalls to Adarsha and Universal Academy, both well-known publication houses, without citing any reason. However, sources said the authorities raised objections against a book written by Fakhrul's son-in-law.
Both the publishing firms always got space for stalls and it was for the first time that they were denied permission to participate in the book fair.
Until December 26, the Bangla Academy received around 750 online applications for allotting space on the Bangla Academy premises and Suhrawardy Udyan for opening stalls by publication houses.
Mahbubur Rahman, publisher of Adarsha, said that he applied for three units for opening a stall and deposited the fee of Tk59,000 in the Bangla Academy's bank account.