Jaipur, January 20: Controversial author Salman Rushdie today cancelled his visit to India for the Jaipur Literature Festival citing threats to his life, ending days of speculation over his participation in the event.
In a statement read out to the press by festival producer Sanjoy K Roy, the Booker Prize winning author stated that he had been told by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that “paid assassins” from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to “eliminate” him.
“While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers. I will, therefore, not travel to Jaipur as planned,” he said as the five-day literary meet kicked off today.
The 65-year-old novelist later said on Twitter that he would participate at the event via video link.
While the festival organisers said such incidents were essentially unacceptable, the organisations protesting the visit said freedom of expression does not give anyone right to write anything objectionable.
Reacting to the announcement, festival director Namita Gokhale said she was “deeply disappointed” even so when the author had been a part of this gathering in 2007.
Co-director William Dalrymple said Rushdie’s case has been that of “Chinese whispers” as most people have not read what he has written.
“Salman is a writer of enormous breath and writes on huge variety of subjects. His passionate engagement with Indian Islamic history shows he is as far as can possibly be removed from Islamophobia.
“He is one of India’s greatest writers and in a more just world his arrival here would have been welcomed by people showering rose petals on the road,” he said.
Rushdie’s proposed visit was objected to by India’s largest Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband besides raising the hackles of several right wing groups.
Rushdie said in his statement that he had refrained from commenting on the subject for several days at the request of local authorities “hoping that they would put in place such precautions as might be necessary to allow me to come and address the Festival audience in circumstances that were comfortable and safe for all”.
The author has earlier attended the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2007, without much fuss. However, the exponential growth the festival has witnessed since then has made sure the developments here catch more eyeballs now than earlier.
Rushdie, who had kept silent on Twitter all these days, reappeared on the social networking site to make his disappointment at the events plain.
“Very sad not to be at Jaipur. I was told Bombay mafia don issued weapons to 2 hitmen to “eliminate” me. Will do video link instead. Damn (sic),” he wrote.
After reading out the statement by the ‘Midnight’s Children’ author, and terming the development very unfortunate, Roy refused to take any more questions, saying these should now be directed to the state government.
“It shows a shocking lack of vision and integrity… Easily what many people do is ban or burn or stop, which in a country that boasts of diversity of opinion, is ridiculous and unacceptable….And this is not only about this case, today it is an A group of organisations, tomorrow it will be another,” said an agitated Roy.
The announcement also came on a day when a group of Muslim organisations, who had met the festival organisers yesterday, had said they would hold a peaceful protest at the Jama Masjid to make their objection clear to the invitation extended to the author, whose ‘Satanic Verses’ had triggered controversy in the Islamic world, earning him the fatwa.
Welcoming the announcement of the cancellation of the visit, Mohammad Salim, National Secretary of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, said It was a good development and Rushdie was a “criminal from our religious point of view.”
“… Some political groups were also in favour of protest so that they can misuse our platform that is why we were repeatedly asking the organisers and the government to cancel his visit because we did not want any untoward happening in the name of our protest,” he said.
The festival will see over 200 authors flood the Diggi Palace venue. Among the big names on the festival list this year are Tom Stoppard, Michael Ondaatje and Ben Okri.
–PTI