Organisers of Mumbai’s famous Kala Ghoda Arts Festival have cancelled a book discussion featuring scholar and civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde on the orders of the Mumbai Police. Participants of this discussion have also been instructed to delete all social media posts related to the event, according to a report by Scroll.in.

The festival began on January 31 and is scheduled to conclude on February 8. It has a wide-ranging schedule, including dance, theatre, music performances and heritage walks, and has been organised in collaboration with the BMC, the state tourism department and UNESCO.

The panel discussion featuring Teltumbde was initially scheduled for February 8 but was rescheduled for February 5 based on his request, according to sources. Apart from Teltumbde, the session – titled “Incarcerated: Tales from Behind Bars” – was scheduled to include Neeta Kolhatkar, author of The Featured: Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners, with Scroll.in editor Naresh Fernandes as the moderator.

However, several pro-Hindutva accounts had objected to the event once its posters were uploaded on social media. They asked why agencies of the Maharashtra government, which were collaborating with the festival, would allow the organisers to invite an “Urban Naxal” like Teltumbde.

Late on Tuesday night, the panel discussion participants were informed that the organisers had cancelled the session. 

Teltumbde was arrested in April 2020 in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). After serving 31 months in prison, he was released on bail in November 2022. During his time in jail, he wrote The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir – an in-depth account of his experiences behind bars.

Speaking to Newslaundry, journalist and author Neeta Kolhatkar, said, “The Constitution has given citizens the fundamental right to be informed. And my responsibility as a journalist is to impart information, which is unbiased. My book is about the people who from independence to now have been feared by authorities because they held contrarian views and questioned authority. So, when they are cancelling something which should be in the public domain, you’re denying the right of the citizens to be empowered and informed.”   

“We also have to condemn this cancel culture and the actions of authorities who are overpowering public spaces, denying the right of the citizens to be informed, and denying the rights of the people who we’ve written about. These are true stories. People need to know what the conditions of our prisons are. You can’t keep calling everybody [who disagrees with you] an ‘Urban Naxal’,” she added.  

A questionnaire has been sent to the Commissioner of the Mumbai Police regarding the cancellation. This report will be updated if a response is received.

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