KOLKATA: Litterateur Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, one of the finest fiction writer in Bengali literature, has expressed concern over piracy of published works from West Bengal in Bangladesh and called for highest level action to put an end to this practice.
Speaking after the launch of 'Hariye Jawa Lekha', (Collection of Lost Writings), the 82-year old Ananda Purashkar recipient said, "This is a big problem and the writers are losing interest.
"Despite some past initiatives and efforts in this regard, those did not meet the desired result. Even there had been effort by Sheikh Hasina government, but that too yielded little effect," Mukhopadhyay told reporters on the sidelines of the book launch, here yesterday.
He said there should be an end to such practice, or else the writers will lose interest.
Mukhopadhyay said the craze over Bengali writers and their volume of works was much more evident in Bangladesh than in West Bengal.
Several books of the writer had been made into films.
Asked about the rallies announced by some intellectuals in protest against recent communal clashes in Bengal, Mukhopadhyay said, "Only a handful of miscreants instigate riots.
Not the common peace loving people.
"Will those miscreants, involved in riots, listen to what we say? Won't they be looking for scope to vandalise and attack people in future as well?" he wondered.
The writer said it should not be assumed that some stray incidents have disrupted the communal harmony of the entire country.
He said handing over arms to children in the religious procession was tantamount to instigating them to be violent.
Mukhopadhyay's 'Hariye Jawa Lekha', published in two volumes, was a compilation of his unpublished and little-known works penned since his youth.