Book lovers take out a procession in Tirupati at Jyotirao Phule Circle in Tirupati on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR

Writers, litterateurs, academicians and book lovers, under the aegis of the ‘Pusthaka Priyula Aikya Vedika’ forum, took out a procession at Jyotirao Phule Circle in Tirupati on Tuesday, condemning the recent attack on a bookstall at the Tirupati Book Festival. Attackers targeted a stall displaying books on Tamil ideologue E.V.R. Periyar and demanded the books be taken off the shelves.

Forum convener Vaka Prasad condemned the manner in which the attackers launched a “virulent attack” on a publication house. “How can anyone decide or judge which book is to be read?” he asked.

In spite of ideological differences, a book festival is a place for the convergence of thoughts, and it is not proper to pass judgements on which books to be displayed for sale, opined Sahitya Akademi awardee Madhurantakam Narendra. Journalist-turned-writer R.M. Umamaheswara Rao, A. Raghava, Moorisetti Govindu, and Peruru Balasubramanyam were among those who took part.