Mamata invited to Sharjah Book Fair

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been invited to attend the Sharjah International Book Fair which is scheduled to be held from November 3 to 13. She has also been invited by the ICC for the T20 Cricket World Cup which is being held in UAE at present.

The 40th Sharjah International Book Fair will be inaugurated on November 2. The formal invitation from the book fair authorities was sent to Banerjee on Thursday.

Banerjee was denied permission by the Centre last month to participate at the World Peace Conference at Rome scheduled in October. In the letter the "the Union ministry of external affairs had stated that "the event is not commensurate in status for participation by chief minister of a state."

In August, Banerjee was invited to attend a programme by Macro Impagliazzo, the president of Community of Sant'Egidio, a Catholic association based in Rome. She was the only Indian invited to attend it.

The Italian government had mentioned Banerjee's "significant election victory" and "the important work for social justice, for the development of your own country, and therefore, for peace, which you have been doing for over ten years now" while inviting her.

Banerjee earlier was allegedly denied permission to visit Chicago to attend the World Hindu conference in 2018. In 2016, Banerjee had attended the canonization of Mother Teresa at Vatican City.