Scrapping video at Jaipur Literature Festival awful: Salman Rushdie

New Delhi/Jaipur: Disappointed over the cancellation of his video conference at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie called the decision 'awful'. "#JLF Videolink cancellation: awful...," Rushdie tweeted on Tuesday.

Rushdie's live video conference at Jaipur Literature Festival was cancelled on Tuesday, following protests by Jaipur-based Milli Council. Several activists of the Milli Council arrived at the venue of the Festival at Diggi Palace on Tuesday afternoon, demanding that the proposed video address by Rushdie be called off, claiming that it was an insult to the Muslims.

"#JLF Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats," (sic) Rushdie tweeted.

In an interview with television news channel NDTV, Rushdie also blamed politics for the cancellation and said that the issue was somewhere linked to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. He also said that he will keep coming back to India despite the events in the recent past. "It's a personal disappointment, but I will keep coming back to India, deal with it," Rushdie said.

Despite the Rajasthan government supporting the organisers of the festival, the link was called off amidst much drama at Diggi Palace in Jaipur.

The owner of the Diggy Palace Ram Pratap Singh said that he decided to not allow the video link fearing violence. Singh said that several people had entered the venue and threatened to take the law in their own hands if the video link was allowed.

"I have taken a decision on not to allow the video conference to go ahead on the advise of Rajasthan police. There are a large number people who are inside the property and a large number who are marching towards the property. This is necessary to avoid violence and harm to the property and my family," he said.

Jaipur Literature Festival organiser Sanjoy Roy said he felt disgraced because bering artists they were not allowed to carry put what they had planned to do.

"We are having to step down from the freedom of expression, write and tell stories. It's not a decision to support. We have been pushed to the wall. We have been informed by the police that there are large crowds gathering in various parts of the city marching towards Diggy Palace. It's unfortunate to step down. But Rajasthan Police supported us. The Police Commissioner assured us that they will give us protection if we wanted to go ahead," said Roy.

Claiming that the Festival was one of the best across the world, Roy said the issue was not about him (Rushdie) in person as even seeing his face would have been a problem.

"Ram Pratap and Naina were adamant that they wanted to protect people who were here and would not allowed it to go ahead," he said.

Roy called the entire controversy "idiotic" to loud cheers from crowd and then broke down on stage. He walked off wiping his tears amidst thunderous applause from the crowd.

The Booker-winning author was scheduled to do a video conference at 3:45 pm on Tuesday. But Milli Council, one of the organisations which had filed a complaint against four authors for reading out passages from 'The Satanic Verses' on Friday, had been protesting against the move since Tuesday afternoon.

The organisers had earlier assured that Rushdie would not break any law with his video address at the Festival. Jaipur Literature Festival organiser Sanjoy Roy had said that they would go ahead with the video link with Rushdie at 3:45 pm on Tuesday.

Roy had asserted that the video link would be according to the law and Rushdie would speak on his book 'Midnight's Children'.

The Rushdie controversy

65-year-old Salman Rushdie has been under attack by Islamic hardliners for his controversial book "The Satanic Verses", published in 1988, for "alleged blasphemy" against Prophet Mohammed. India was among the first countries to ban the book.

Rushdie has been in India twice since the controversy. His first visit in 2000 to the country of his birth 12 years after "Satanic Verses" was banned created a flutter in the media. The writer was escorted around with unprecedented security.

In 2007, Rushdie attended the festival at Jaipur. The visit came despite protests by some Muslim groups.

Last year, speculative media reports that he had been invited to attend a Kashmiri literary festival, Harud, had whipped up a controversy in Jammu and Kashmir. The festival was eventually called off - though not for this reason alone.

The novel triggered controversy soon after it was published. Muslims the world over protested, some of the protests turning violent. It also invited a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini, the late supreme leader of Iran. In February, 1989 Khomeini called for the death of Rushdie and his publishers.

The fatwa was later revoked on September 24, 1998.

Rushdie was expected to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. However, he called off his visit at the last minute saying there were threats to his life from the underworld.

Rushdie issued a statement through the organisers of the festival saying that he will not be coming to the event.

"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," Rushdie tweeted.

Influential Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband had earlier demanded that Rushdie should not be allowed into India. It even issued a fatwa saying that anybody willing to hurl a shoe at Rushdie would be paid Rs 1 lakh.

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