Kolkata:
Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien has denied that the West Bengal government has banned its libraries from stocking English newspapers.
Mr O'Brien told NDTV that there is a second list of newspapers that can be kept at state run libraries in West Bengal in which the Times of India is included. He was however unable to give NDTV the date when the second circular was issued.
Earlier in a tweet, Mr O'Brien said, "I understand that an English daily (Times of India) is in the list for public libraries which has papers of many languages including Bengal, Hindi, Urdu, Santhali, Nepali."
Mr O'Brien also said, "Dragging the CM's name into this 'controversy' is unfair. Are we suggesting she starts micromanaging even library department lists"
Fact is, in a circular dated March 14 the special secretary of the Mass Education Extension and Library Services department has named eight newspapers that should henceforth be stocked in public libraries.
The newspapers are:
1. Sangbad Pratidin (Bengali)
2. Sakalbela (Bengali)
3. Ak Din (Bengali)
4. 365 din (Bengali)
5. Dainik Statesman (Bengali)
6. Azad Hind (Urdu)
7. Akbar-e-Masriq (Urdu)
8. Sanmarg (Hindi)
Neither leading Bengali papers like the Ananda Bazar Patrika or the Bartaman nor any English daily, is on the list.
"This is worse than censorship; this has shades of fascism," said Sitaram Yechury from the Left, the main opposition party in West Bengal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appreciated the move, countered Library Services Minister Abdul Karim Chowdhury to local TV channels.
This evening, Derek O'Brien who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Ms Banerjee's party said on twitter that all English dailies will not be removed from libraries; the Times of India, he said, will be available. He also added that "the circular ordering the removal of newspapers was issued by a "small-time library services department" and not the chief minister.
The circular was signed by the Special Secretary, Library Services. It said that public funds could not be spent on "any papers published or purported to be published by any political party."
The one daily that is published by a political party is the Bengali newspaper Ganashakti, which is a CPM mouthpiece.
But among the papers that have made the cut are four whose editors or senior journalists have been elected to the Rajya Sabha as representatives of Ms Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress.
"I have no idea why she has done this; she is trying to control what I read," said Pradeep Bhattacharjee, the president of the Congress, which is a partner in Ms Banerjee's government.
"Only papers that are supporting the TMC are being kept here. We protest this," said Sushanto Seth a regular visitor at libraries.
The issue was also brought up in the state Assembly yesterday by a Congress MLA who called the government circular undemocratic and urged the chief minister to have it withdrawn. Mamata Banerjee was not present in the Assembly at that time.