Click to play videoNew Delhi: Gagged not once but twice from participating in the Jaipur Literature Festival, controversial author Salman Rushdie says he won't back down and will keep coming back to India. He also blamed the government for bowing to, who he called, religious gangsters.
Rushdie said that he was 'shocked' and 'astonished' over the cancellation of his video conference. He blamed politics and linked the cancellation of the video link to the Uttar Pradesh polls. "It's somewhat connected to the UP polls, there's no other explanation," Rushdie said.
The controversial India-born author also hit out at the Muslim groups opposed to him. Commenting on the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, Rushdie said, "Deobandis and extremists are the real enemies of Islam."
Meanwhile, the row over Rushdie's banned book continues. An Ajmer court will on Wednesday hear a complaint filed by some Muslim groups against the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival as well as the 4 authors who read excerpts from 'The Satanic Verses'. Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Ruchir Joshi and Jeet Thayil had read passages from the book on January 20, the first day of the festival, to protest over Rushdie's absence before they were stopped by the organisers of the festival and led away by the police.
While the Jaipur Literature Festival began with suspense and drama over whether Salman Rushdie will be allowed to participate in it, the event ended on a more dramatic note with the author not even being able to address the gathering through a video link.
The people, who had assembled to hear Rushdie, were in for a rude shock when the announcement came at the last moment that the session was being cancelled.
Participating in the discussion on freedom of speech in the country, many authors said that government should have played a key role in maintaining peace and safety at the festival venue.
Author Pavan Varma said, "Government's job is to ensure that there is no breach of peace and of safety and I want to say just one thing that we must all aspire to freedom of speech but there is no absolute freedom of speech in any country."
Writer Shobhaa De said that the organisers should not have succumbed to the hardliners so easily. "It was a literary festival that had nothing to do with politics and that we have given in so very easily to just a group of people is something that is shocking."
Advocate Harish Salve said, "what is scary is the politics of violent numbers is being used increasingly to stifle democracy."
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.