Tarek Fatah posted a screenshot of the Calcutta Club’s mail to him saying that they have to cancel the event due to “unavoidable circumstances”. (Twitter)

West Bengal government on Wednesday cancelled an event at the Calcutta club in which author and political commentator Tarek Fatah were scheduled to speak on the topic of Balochistan and its ‘freedom’ from Pakistan. Fatah went on social networking site Twitter to express his displeasure over the event. Tarek Fatah posted a screenshot of the Calcutta Club’s mail to him saying that they have to cancel the event due to “unavoidable circumstances”. Although the mail did not mention any particular reason or force behind the cancellation, Fatah said that it was the state government behind the cancellation. Fatah also pointed out that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had asked the club to remove “Kashmir” from the first poster of the programme.

One of the reasons behind the cancellation of the event is the close relationship between Tarek Fatah and the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Fatah has been quite a vocal supporter of PM Narendra Modi and his Independence Day slogan to expose Pakistani government and its army’s atrocities in Balochistan. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has been opposing PM Narendra Modi and his centre for a long time.

Following the announcement of demonetisation, Mamata Banerjee along with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had taken out numerous protests against the Modi government citing the inconvenience faced by the people. The West Bengal Chief Minister had also gone on to accuse the BJP government at the centre of attempting to conduct a military coup in west Bengal. It had later been revealed that the army deployment was a part of a routine exercise which had been conducted in other states and in previous years as well.