Covid cloud on publishers, printers ahead of Kolkata International Book Fair

The organiser of the mega event, the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, has decided to hold the fair from February 28, in place of the earlier announced date of January 31.

Kolkata: The cloud over holding the Kolkata International Book Fair, one of the biggest literary fests in the world in terms of footfall, has somehow been lifted. The organiser of the mega event, the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, has decided to hold the fair from February 28, in place of the earlier announced date of January 31. Yet, some thorns still lay ahead of the success of the fair, thanks to the rising graph of Covid-19 cases, both in Kolkata as well as in the districts.

Initially, the bottleneck was the deferred date of four municipal corporation elections. The state election commission postponed the polling from January 22 to February 12, due to the third wave of the pandemic, which has hit West Bengal hard. Now, the venue of the book fair is the Central Park fairground in Salt Lake in the eastern fringes of the metropolis.

The changed polling dates would mean that the fair would be happening during the election of Salt Lake Municipal Corporation as well as the date of counting of votes, which would be February 15. The Model Code of Conduct for elections will be in effect across the entire Salt Lake civic body jurisdiction till February 15, making it tough for the organisers as well as the administration to hold the fair. Hence, the new deferred date of February 28.

General Secretary of the Guild, Tridip Kumar Chattopadhyay is hopeful about the new date of the book fair. He hopes by the end of February the caseload could go down as per experts and there would be no problem in holding the fair, maintaining all Covid protocols.

But another senior Guild official said the organisers are still not clear about the participation of international publishers and guests. “The Kolkata Book Fair is in a true sense an international affair with so many litterateurs, publishers and other guests congregating in Kolkata for the event. It is a unique annual literary platform and a free forum for exchanging views and ideas.

"This year, The Guild had declared that Bangladesh will be the theme country of the fair as both the birth centenary of the neighbouring country's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh's independence will be celebrated. But we do not know what the quarantine period will be for our international guests. It all depends on the Union Health Ministry and its guidelines prevalent at that particular time.

"It is very hard to predict it for now. On the other hand, our international guests and participants need to plan well ahead about their tour as they also have their own engagements. Things are very fluid as of now regarding the participation of international guests and authors.”

International participation is not the only issue that the Guild is facing while it frantically pulls up its strings to host the fair after it got cancelled last year due to the second wave of the pandemic. The publishers are giving the organisers sleepless nights.

“There are simply no workers available in the production unit. If the fair happened on January 31 as it was earlier decided, then we would have participated with our old books. Kolkata Book Fair is the annual stage where most publishers like us, come up with new titles – be it fiction or non-fiction. This is the platform to showcase your best before a huge cross-section of audience and readers. But, for all that, one has to get the books physically ready. Every week since early January this year, our workers are falling sick.

"The machines are sitting idle for want of technicians as several of them have taken ill. This viral infection of Covid-19 is taking a toll on many of our workers’ health and they need more time to get work-ready. This is severely hampering our production. Even with the deferred date, we don’t know what will happen in the end,” said Sumit Sengupta, one of the publishers of the city.

Several other publishers have also shared similar concerns with huge pile-up and pending work at the production sheds.

With Guild president Sudhanshu Sekhar Dey promising utmost care in holding the fair with Covid-19 protocol in place and reduced stall sizes to provide ample open space for people to move around inside the fairground, the organisers are keeping their fingers crossed till the end of February.