New Delhi, 28 August— Book lovers reading The Diary of a Young Girl by Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala in a park were attacked and heckled in Ahmedabad by a mob led by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, according to a report in the local Gujrati media.
While Ahmedabad police said they are questioning three people after a mob, allegedly of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad supporters, but the incident reflects as how the RSS-BJP ecosystem has destroyed the knowledge culture among the younger generations. Such incidents adversely impact the country’s image abroad and speaks volumes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of India being a ‘Vishwaguru’.
The bibliophiles had gathered at Vastrapur Garden on Thursday for a silent reading protest against a private school in the city being forced to drop those two books from its reading list.
The people had brought their own books and were reading in a silent protest when the mob heckled them and asked them to prove they were not Muslims, one of the organisers of the protest told Ahmedabad Mirror.
An official statement by The Student and Youth Collective that organised the book-reading protest alleged that the protesters were beaten, forced into a police van and taken to Vastarpur Police Station
One of the protesters was allegedly threatened and told that if she continued to record the incident, they would “make her disappear and no one would find her”, per the Ahmedabad Mirror report.
“In this incident, a case has been registered at Vastrapur Police Station under FIR No. 11191020260278/2026, under Sections 189(1), 191(2), 191(3), 190, 115(2), 351(2) and 61(2) of the BNS, against 2 named accused and a mob of about 18 other persons, and lawful action has been taken,” the Ahmedabad police posted on its X (formerly Twitter) handle.
“In this case, three accused have been rounded up on the basis of CCTV footage, and further investigation of the crime is underway,” the police said.
The two books were dropped from the library reading list of Anand Niketan School after parents’ protests – in which the VHP and Bajrang Dal also reportedly participated – over the alleged discovery of a piece of glass in food served at the school canteen somehow snowballed into allegations of “discrimination against one religion”.
The inclusion of I Am Malala and The Diary of a Young Girl in the school’s book club was reportedly cited as evidence. The parents alleged that a consultant appointed by the school had altered the curriculum and included the two books.
The school removed the books from the list and sacked the consultant and canteen supervisor after the district authorities issued a notice to the school.
Veteran Journalist and Political Commentator
