Written 26 poems already on SIR: Mamata while inaugurating Kolkata Book Fair

West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (January 22, 2026) said that ever since 2026 set in, she has already written 26 poems on the “harassment” being caused by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a process she alleged the Election Commission was using to decide the outcome of elections in India.

“Logistic discrepancies in SIR are being witnessed only in West Bengal. Every day people have to stand in queues for four to five hours. They are facing problems for matters like their surnames being spelt as Banerjee as well as Bandopadhyay, Mukherjee as well as Mukhopadhyay. In one case, officials wondered how five people can have the same parents. Come on, back then one didn’t follow the Hum Do, Hamare Do (two-child) policy!” Ms. Banerjee said while inaugurating the International Kolkata Book Fair, which will go on till February 3 with nearly 1,100 stalls and the participation of 20 countries excluding Bangladesh.

“How can we get our parents’ birth certificates? Many of us don’t even know when exactly our parents were born. Back then most people were cases of ‘home delivery’. Even (former Prime Minister) Atal Behari Vajpayee himself told me once that December 25 was not his birthday. There are many among us who don’t know their actual date of birth. But they are troubling people [with such questions], even people like Amartya Sen and poet Joy Goswami,” she said.

Ms. Banerjee also announced the setting up of a Boi Tirtha (books pilgrimage) by the same time next year, when the Kolkata book fair completes 50 years, and declared a grant of Rs. 10 crore for the purpose. “I also write, even though I am a simple person, a less important person. I mostly write when I am travelling. I usually write longhand because that’s when thoughts flow. I have written 153 books till date and nine more will come out this year. Royalty is my only source of income. I have never accepted a rupee from the government,” the Chief Minister said.

This year, Argentina is the focal theme country of the fair and the country’s ambassador to India, Mariano Agustin Caucino, who was present at the event, said Argentina and Kolkata, even though 17,000 km apart, had several common elements including football, Tagore (who met Victoria Ocampo in Buenos Aires) and love for literature.

“This historical milestone will strengthen cultural diplomacy and literary collaboration with India, promote literature in Spanish language, and foster connection between writers, publishers and readers of the two countries,” the ambassador said.

Since the book fair, organised by the Publishers & Booksellers Guild, is the biggest event in the city after Durga Puja, recording 27 lakh visitors last year, the excitement — among readers as well as publishers — is palpable. “This time, the fair looks less like a spectacle and more like a quiet exchange. Readers don’t seem to be rushing. They are pausing, spending time with a book, listening to it before deciding. In those unhurried moments, I feel a renewed faith in reading, as something deeply personal, almost sacred,” said Sayani Dutta Mitra, managing partner of Doshor Publications, hours after the inauguration.

“What I am going to buy today is Ruskin Bond’s new book, The Ghosts of Indian Small Towns, Ghazala Wahab’s The Hindi Heartland, and a collection of interviews with writer Ashish Lahiri, titled Encounter. Of course, I am going to look at other books too,” said Amartya Bandopadhyay, a chemistry teacher in a Diamond Harbour school.

(The Hindu is present at the International Kolkata Book Fair at stall no. E-96).