SRINAGAR: J&K CM Omar Abdullah said Wednesday his elected govt had no role in deciding which books are banned or withdrawn from libraries, distancing his administration from the removal of 4,249 books after a screening of more than 21 lakh volumes across the Union territory over the past two months.“I have my own views on whether books should be banned or not. But unfortunately, in the current system we in the elected govt don’t get to decide these things,” Omar said. “Then we will take a fresh look at what’s happening,” he said, referring to a future change in the administrative set-up.
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Home department, which handles law and order and security in the Union territory, reports directly to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha. Omar did not clarify whether the book-removal order came from home department or education department under elected govt.A year ago, home department banned 25 books on Kashmir for allegedly promoting “a false narrative”, “secessionism” and “anti-national” views. The total number of banned and withdrawn books swelled to 518 since then.Omar’s remarks came after Hurriyat Conference chairperson Mirwaiz Umar Farooq questioned who decided that thousands of books, including almost 4,000 from the Kashmir region, were objectionable and demanded that their titles and reasons for removal be made public. Writing on X, he asked: “By withdrawing these books whose agenda is the elected govt implementing, its own or someone else’s?”Farooq held Omar govt responsible because education department and universities separately ordered in July screening of all new and old books in offices, classrooms, staff rooms and libraries for “objectionable content” after home department withdrew two volumes it called “highly inappropriate”. More than 21 lakh books were screened and over 4,000 titles removed from libraries since the orders were issued, education minister Sakina Itoo told the assembly Tuesday.
