The Ananda Vikatan Affair

Messrs Poopalasingam Booksellers are a company with unquestionale integrity

By Victor Karunairajan

(March 07, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Ananda Vikatan along with Kumutham are well known South Indian publications. They have been popular with Tamil readers for decades and so are Kalki, Kalaimagal and a number of Tamil film journals.

Messrs Poopalasingams, very reputable booksellers have been distributing them in Sri Lanka ever since this company was founded soon after World War II.

The founder was the father of the current directors, Mr R Poopalasingam, who was a prominent member of the Communist Party, a close friend of the late Pieter Keuneman, Dr S A Wickremasinghe and several others and has represented the party abroad.

He was a great social worker, and coming as he did from Nainativu, was an active member of the historically famous and much venerated Hindu temple, Nagapooshani Amman Temple directorate.

Politically, he stood for a united Sri Lanka with appropriate devolution of powers that took into interests the aspirations and needs of the minorities. He opposed all forms of separatist politics.

He also opposed all forms of social discrimination and was a much respected member of the Jaffna City community.

His children who run this firm have followed their father's footsteps in promoting the company but have kept themselves outside politics. They are very dedicated to the promotion of Tamil literature and children's books.

They will never be involved in any activity that will endanger the interests of the country. They also participate in book fairs in South Asia and are a credit to Sri Lanka and especially to the Tamil community.

Ananda Vikatan and Kumutham are not banned publications in Sri Lanka.

If exceptions are taken to these for whatever they publish and this writer believes they do publish a great deal of trash too, many Indian publications will come under the category of publishing features that are not comfortable to the Government of Sri Lanka.

The reported arrest of the Manging Director of Messrs Poopalasingam, the elder son of the late R Poopalasingam was news most unfortunate just because an issue of Ananada Vikatan had a feature that was critical of the government and or supportive of the LTTE.

This writer who has known the activities of this firm and the family especially the founder father of Messrs Poopalasingam is deeply troubled that such an insensitive incident could happen in Sri Lanka. -Sri Lanka Guardian