New Delhi: Days after Salman Rushdie was not allowed to speak at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the issue continues to touch a raw nerve among Muslim clerics and intellectuals even as liberals excoriate the brazen violation of a writer's freedom of creative expression.
"It was the right thing not to let him speak. And it's a good thing he did not come," Darul Uloom Deoband vice chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani told IANS when asked whether he felt vindicated after Rushdie's video-conference was cancelled Jan 24 amid apprehensions of protests.
In the run-up to the literary festival, Nomani had protested against the proposed visit of Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses" which takes a critical look at Islam, to India.
"If he visits it would be adding salt to the injuries of Muslims," he had said when the guessing game was still on about Rushdie's visit....
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12:26 PM, Jan 30, 2012
New Delhi: Jaipur literature Festival organiser Sanjoy Roy has claimed that JLF organisers chose to call off controversial author Salman Rushdie's video link even after the Rajasthan police promised protection. While speaking exclusively to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate, he admitted that it was the festival organisers who decided to call off the video conference with the author at the last minute despite the assurances of security given by the...
04:46 PM, Jan 29, 2012
Is 2011-12, 1988-89 all over again? The near farce over Salman Rushdie's non-appearance in Jaipur, whether in person or even in a videolink, would suggest ...
12:20 AM, Jan 27, 2012
Kolkata: Criticising the government for the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie's visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival, novelist Vikram Seth on Thursday said the affair was whipped up because of "power", "politics" and "misuse of religion". "The whole affair was whipped up because of power and politics and because of the misuse of religion. And the government did nothing. Frankly this is madness," he said at the Kolkata Literary Meet. "We...
08:12 PM, Jan 26, 2012
New 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...
07:27 AM, Jan 25, 2012
Rushdie was given permission to address the Jaipur Lit fest through video link but was forced to cancel the appearance after protests. ...
11:53 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Jaipur: The planned video address by celebrated author Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival was scrapped at the last minute on Tuesday because of security fears. Expressing regret over a situation that he described as 'fairly idiotic', The festival producer Sanjoy Roy said "We are having to step down in a fight for the freedom of expression", before breaking down on stage. Rushdie video link cancellation: How the events...
11:37 PM, Jan 24, 2012
New Delhi: Booker winning author Salman Rushdie's video conference was cancelled amidst high drama and following protests by Muslim groups at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Tuesday. The cancellation raises questions on not just the state government, but also the organisers and the freedom of expression. IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai's take on the row: With their supine approach, the Congress government in Rajasthan and the Centre clearly has been embarrassed...
10:50 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Lawyer Akhil Sibal, AIMPLB member-lawyer Zafaryab Jilani and social activist Shabnam Hashmi discuss the Salman Rushdie video conference row. ...
10:04 PM, Jan 24, 2012
New Delhi: Booker winning author Salman Rushdie on Tuesday made it clear that he will keep coming to India despite the events that unfolded in the recent past. In an interview with the television news channel NDTV, Rushdie said, "It's a personal disappointment, but I will keep coming back to India, deal with it." Rushdie's live video conference at Jaipur Literature Festival was cancelled on Tuesday, following protests by Jaipur-based...
09:34 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said on Tuesday that the media was losing a sense of proportion and balance in the Salman Rushdie video conference issue. "We are losing a sense of proportion and balance in this issue. It is not such a great issue for us to exercise over minds over. The government of India never banned his (Rushdie's) visit. Video-link was stopped by the organisers of the festival." ...
09:21 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Human rights activist Kavita Srivastava on Tuesday condemned the organisations which disrupted Salman Rushdie's video link that was supposed to take place at 3.45 PM. Slamming the Jaipur-based Milli Council, she said the threat to the author and the Lit Fest was very disturbing. ...
09:09 PM, Jan 24, 2012
In the ongoing Rushdie row at the Jaipur Literature Festival, actor Rahul Bose drew attention to the limitations in the Constitution concerning freedom of expression in the country. "We need to take a look at 'Freedom of Speech' under the Constitution of India. We need to campaign for change," he said. ...
08:52 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she did not want to get into a controversy and that Delhi welcomes everyone. ...
08:51 PM, Jan 24, 2012
CNN-IBN's Sagarika Ghose and writer Anurag Anand discuss the row over Salman Rushdie's video link cancellation. ...
07:05 PM, Jan 24, 2012
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...
06:49 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Jalandhar: Slamming the government for "bowing to fundamentalists", Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said controversial author Salman Rushdie should have been allowed to come to India. A much awaited video address by Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival was called off on Tuesday following protests by some Muslim groups. Jaitley, the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the author should have been given police...
06:05 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Actress Konkona Sen said that she was disappointed, but not surprised by the cancellation of Rushdie's video link. ...
05:59 PM, Jan 24, 2012
People at the festival, who had come for Salman Rushdie's video conference were angry over the cancellation of the link. ...
05:31 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Rajasthan Home Secretary GS Sandhu said that the government had given clearance and had no role in the cancellation of Rushdie's video link. ...
05:09 PM, Jan 24, 2012
