Anti-CPM and anti-establishment groups and publications have found the fair to be the perfect platform to voice their dissent against the government. Leading from the front is Jaago Bangla, a publication that calls itself the ‘mouthpiece of the Trinamool Congress’. The flashy stall right at the heart of the fair is doing brisk business — selling books written over the last two decades by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Dola Sen, a representative of Jaago Bangla, said: “Banerjee had been voicing concerns and struggles of the grassroots for long. Her poetries reflect her concern and talk about atrocities of the government.”

The minister already has authoured 25 books, the latest being Nandi Maa, a documentation of the people’s movement in Nandigram as understood by Mamata. Her Maa Maati Manush (a compilation of Banerjee’s poetry named after the slogan of her party) and Anashan Keno, an analytic piece against CPM’s policies, are selling like hot cakes.

Ei Muhurte, a magazine published by the United Students’ Democratic Front, talks about police atrocities in Lalgarh and trace what they call the people’s movement there, taking a definite anti-CPM stand.