By TCN News
Ahmadabad: The Gujarat high court refused to ban the sale of the book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi – ‘Fekuji Have Dilli Ma’ (Feku is in Delhi now) which mocks and criticises him for the tall promises and claims he made during his campaigning in the parliamentary polls 2014. The book refers to PM Modi as Feku meaning a boastful person.
Justice S H Vora on Tuesday rejected the writ petition filed by Modi supporter Narsinhbhai Solanki at the stage of admission itself, saying the court did not agree with the reasons cited by the petitioner for imposing a ban.
Solanki had earlier filed a civil suit in a lower court seeking ban over publication and distribution of the book which was rejected on June 25 saying the book does not cause any damage to the reputation of the plaintiff, and Shah had the right to publish a book under Article 19 of the Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression.
Aggrieved with the lower court order, Solanki then challenged the ruling before the HC on the ground that the freedom of speech and expression comes with reasonable restrictions. However, High Court too on Tuesday not accepted Solanki’s arguments and dismissed the petition.
Author Jayesh Shah is now planning to publish the book in six other languages – English, Hindi and four south Indian languages.
Shah published this 25-page book in Gujarati language questioning whether ‘achhe din’ will ever come. He mentioned in the book that it is the common man who is bearing the brunt of all the false promises made by Modi to win votes.
Shah told ToI that he has got the book translated in English and Hindi, which will soon be published in Delhi. A publication house from Chennai – Silabu Publications – has expressed intent to buy rights of the book. It wants to translate the book in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu for publication in south India. “I am going to sign the contract they have offered to me,” Shah said.