Delhi Riots book authors file complaint against Bloomsbury, Aatish Taseer, William Dalrymple

The authors seek an investigation against Bloomsbury India for criminal breach of trust, cheating and mischief after the company withdrew from publishing the book.

Cover page of the book 'Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story' | bloomsbury.com | ThePrint

New Delhi: The authors of Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story Thursday filed a complaint against Bloomsbury India for withdrawing their book and leaking its PDF version to hamper any future sales.

The complaint also names news portals Newslaundry, The Quint, besides activists Nandini Sundar and Saket Gokhale, writers Aatish Taseer and William Dalrymple, journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani, poet Meena Kandasamy and others for criminal intimidation and breach of trust.
The controversial book was authored by lawyer Monika Arora and professors Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra — all of whom are associated with the Right-wing Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA). The publisher’s decision to withdraw it came after it faced backlash for giving a platform to unsubstantiated allegations regarding the Delhi riots.

The complaint filed by Arora, which has been accessed by ThePrint, states that it seeks investigation against Bloomsbury Publishing India Private Limited for the “offence of criminal breach of trust, cheating, mischief, misappropriation of property under Sections 403, 405, 406, 409, 415, 420, 425, 426 of IPC, 1860 for being the publisher of my authored book and having deliberately, willfully with dishonest intentions expunged my work, effort and skill thereby diminishing my goodwill, reputation and standing, without my knowledge and consent rescinded from performing its obligations under the terms of the agreement dated 29.5.2020 and leaked a PDF version of the book in public to hamper any future sales”.

The complaint said a “venomous campaign emerged on social media, especially Twitter, when this group of individuals/propagandists widely known as the ‘Urban Naxal Gang’ conspired and went all out to kill the book by pressurizing, intimidating, bullying and blackmailing the Publisher. They even thanked and congratulated one another for being able to put a stop on the release of the book”.

What the complainants say

Meena Kandasamy said she did not know about the complaint against her when ThePrint reached her. “We will fight the fascist forces,” she said in response.

“This is so insane. And here, by the way, lies also the difference between the protest of individuals and the coercion of a state,” Aatish Taseer wrote on Twitter.

When ThePrint reached Arfa Khanum Sherwani, she was also unaware of the complaint against her. She said she would respond only after speaking to her editors.

Saket Gokhale said the complaint was “pathetic”.

“This is intimidation of people who raised their voices against victimisation of minorities in their book, which is full of misinformation and carries an agenda,” he said. “One only hopes that this doesn’t turn out to be state-sponsored intimidation against critics,” he added.

Publicist of Bloomsbury India, Kunal Jalali said he could not comment on the matter just yet since he was unaware of the complaint.

Abhinandan Sekhri of Newslaundry said he “will see, after going through it (the complaint) completely, if it’s worthy of any response”.

ThePrint has also reached The Quint, Nandini Sundar, William Dalrymple, through phone calls, emails and WhatsApp messages, but was yet to receive a response until the time of publishing this report.

‘Creating ill will between classes, promoting enmity’

In the complaint filed with the Delhi Police, the authors stated that the investigation should check for offences of criminal intimidation and statements creating and promoting enmity, hatred, and ill will between classes under Sections 503, 505, 295A of the Indian Penal Code. In this regard, the authors directed attention towards Taseer, Dalrymple, Gokhale, Khanum Sherwani and Kandasamy for having pressurised the publisher into withdrawing the book.

“We met the Commissioner of Police today at 3 pm. We have been very upset over the intimidation and violation of their right of freedom of expression over the past few days since 22.08.2020. We informed the Commissioner of the happenings related to the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ and told him all that has transpired since then. We have filed a complaint and have requested that an investigation against the persons and organisations we have mentioned above should be initiated,” Monika Arora told ThePrint.

Sundar, The Quint and Newslaundry have been accused of allegedly accessing an “illegal” PDF document of the book.

Explaining their stance, Arora said all the three authors had visited the riot-affected areas of Northeast Delhi during February-March 2020 and prepared a ground report as a part of the fact-finding team of GIA.

“The report was submitted to the MoS Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy on 11 March 2020. Later on, we decided to bring out a book on the same topic as they realised that the revelations must reach a wider audience. We had approached Bloomsbury Publications India Pvt. Ltd. for the publication of the book. The manuscript of the book was shared with the publisher. To its satisfaction, the publisher signed an MoU to publish the book. The manuscript went through routine screening processes of the publisher’s editorial, legal and sales/marketing teams. Meanwhile, the manuscript went through multiple drafts as per suggestions and comments of the publisher’s experts. Finally, the publisher approved the final draft and the book was published,” added Arora,

She further said that the copies of the book were delivered to the authors’ home too. “The publisher had shared the link of the book for pre-booking at Amazon, an online sale portal. However, immediately before the scheduled web-launch programme of the book by the authors on 22.08.2020, the publisher informed through a telephone call that Bloomsbury Publications India had withdrawn from the book due to pressure by a vocal group of Twitterati. The section of people had pressurised Bloomsbury UK to take the withdrawal decision,” she said.

The authors have also alleged that contrary to what Bloomsbury India had claimed, the “book launch event was widely publicised on social media platforms with full knowledge of the Publisher”.

“On the date of the launch, at 3:30pm, the Publisher phoned the Author to say that it was considering withdrawing the book on account of pressure from its parent company 3 Bloomsbury UK, and from certain other persons on social media,” the complaint further stated.

(With inputs from Bismee Taskin and Unnati Sharma)