Moment of pride for Barak Valley; Arijit Aditya's book is in the stalls at Kolkata Book Fair

More than 8 lakh people have already visited The International Kolkata Book Fair organised by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild. Every time the visitors passed stall number 488, they saw, touched and bought D: Rashtra-e Jakhan Nipirok (When the state does not care) – a book written by the editor of Dainik Jugashanka Newspaper Arijit Aditya.

Held in Central Park Mela Ground, SaltLake, Kolkata, the 43rd edition of the international book fair has reportedly sold books worth Rs 8.5 crore. “For a small town journalist like me, it is indeed a great feeling to see my book in an international book fair of this scale,” reacts Arijit Aditya who left for Kolkata this morning. “Also, sharing the stall with great writers from both the Bengali is an amazing feeling too,” he adds.

The second edition of the book is published by Abhijaan Publishers. The book features real-life stories of people suffering due to the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC), Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 and the political situation of Assam. It is often mentioned that about 40 lakh Bengalis are set to lose their homeland. Detention camp is the nightmare that keeps them awake all night. Few are even concerned about losing their voting rights and the book is about them, their stories. “D” is a journey that starts from detection, marches to detention and ends with deportation.

Arijit Aditya, who has seen many shades of journalism in his long career, became the editor of the leading Bengali daily in Northeast in 2012. Before that he worked as the news editor in Jugasankha.