New Delhi: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Jan 16, 2004) criticised protests by certain groups on a book on Chatrapati Shivaji and said it is not the right manner to do so.

"Countering the views in a particular book by another good book is understandable," Vajpayee said, adding that he did not like the banning the American writer James Laine's controversial book 'Shivaji: Hindu King of Islamic India'.

He said, "If you do not like anything in a particular book then sit and discuss on it."

Vajpayee recalled a book in which a Hindi poet expressed his views on Shivaji that was disliked by many people and later on removed from circulation.

The Prime Minister was reacting on the attack by few persons on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune for protesting against the controversial book.

The Maharashtra Government too had banned the book recently.