Dam Hits Book Fair

The Tamil-Malayalee dispute over the Mullaperiyar dam is now making itself felt in the written word.

The Tamil-Malayalee dispute over the Mullaperiyar dam is now making itself felt in the written word. Last week, Malayalam Manorama, the largest selling newspaper in Kerala, was forced to temporarily shut down its stall in the Chennai Book Fair organised by the Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association of South India. An organisation called  the May 17th Movement staged a protest in front of the stall. “Malayalam Manorama is spreading false news on Mullapeiryar,” says Thirumurugan, the organiser of the movement. “We are not against Malayalees as a whole. There were other stalls from Kerala, we protested only against Manorama.” The organisers asked Manorama to shut down the stall, but backed out when other publishers protested. The stall was reopened a day later, and is now running under police protection.

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Shahina KK