The fair, organised by Publishers and Booksellers' Guild, will be thrown open to people in general from Wednesday onwards and will continue till February 11.
Inaugurating the 42nd International Kolkata Book Fair, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged authors and historians to be on the guard against distortion of history.
"I am not qualified enough or have intellect enough to request authors and publishers but still I want to request them not to allow anyone to distort or rewrite our history. It is our duty to protect our history and culture," she said.
The fair, organised by Publishers and Booksellers' Guild, will be thrown open to people in general from Wednesday onwards and will continue till February 11. The venue this year has been at Salt Lake's Central Park Mela Complex near Karunamayee. The focal theme this year is France. Drawing a parallel between France and Kolkata, she said that while France was the cultural capital of the world, Kolkata was the cultural capital of India. "We are honoured that France had agreed to be the focal theme country of this year," Mamata said.
Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India and a number of French authors were present at the event. Ziegler said that they were honoured to be invited. "We need to have more translations of French books into Bengali and more book stores in Kolkata which will offer French books. Right now there are three book stores in Kolkata offering French books," he said.
Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee was honoured with CESC Srishti Samman Award (lifetime achievement) award. He would also be conferred with 'Legion of Honour', the highest civilian award of France.
Like previous years, this year too, books penned by Mamata would be released at book fair which would begin on January 31. Five new books of Mamata would be released this year taking the total number of her books to 70.
French Connect
French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler and a number of French authors were present at the event. He said that they were honoured to participate in the book fair.
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 "Mamata Banerjee_Kolkata Book Fair")
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