The Jaipur Literature festival began on Thursday under heavy security with Pakistani authors attending the programme as scheduled. Controversy surrounded the festival again this year with the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth-wing protesting against the participation of Pakistani authors following tension at the Line of Control. ...
11:56 AM, Jan 24, 2013
Jaipur Literature Festival kicks off this week but not without controversy. A group of Islamic clerics has protested the presence of any of the authors who read from the 'Satanic Verses' last year, while the RSS and BJP are reportedly asking for Pakistani participants to be kept out. ...
07:44 PM, Jan 22, 2013
Jaipur literature festival, which is set of kick off this week, has been marred by controversy with a group of Islamic clerics protesting the presence of authors who read from Salman Rushdie's banned book 'The Satanic Verses' in the 2012 edition of the festival. The clerics have said they don't want any of the four authors to take part in the annual festival this time. ...
07:45 PM, Jan 21, 2013
Sources in the Rajasthan Police said that members of the BJP and the RSS in the state were opposing the participation in the event by seven Pakistani authors. ...
06:08 PM, Jan 21, 2013
Amidst reports of threat to the Jaipur Literature Festival by Islamist groups and reportedly by members of the BJP and the RSS, the organiser of the event, Sanjoy Roy has said that the event will be held as per the schedule. ...
03:58 PM, Jan 21, 2013
After a few Islamist groups threatened the organisers of Jaipur Literature Festival against allowing the four authors who had read out passages from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses at the event in 2012, sources in the Rajasthan police said that members of the BJP and the RSS in the state were opposing the participation in the event by seven Pakistani authors. ...
01:47 PM, Jan 21, 2013
A statement warning the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival against allowing authors who had read out passages from Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' at the event last year was issued by Islamist groups on Sunday. ...
01:10 PM, Jan 21, 2013
London: Describing not being able to visit India for over 12 years as a "long exile," controversial India-born writer Salman Rushdie says that being denied a visa and Indian embassies abroad keeping away from him was a "deep wound" inflicted on him by India. Rushdie's 1988 book, 'The Satanic Verses', was soon banned in India, where passions were aroused by the book and for years authorities denied him a visa...
03:42 AM, Sep 24, 2012
Dubai: An Iranian religious foundation has increased its reward for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie, in response to a US-made film that mocks the Prophet Mohammad, sparking protests across the Muslim world. Rushdie, an Indian-born British novelist who has nothing to do with the film, was condemned to death in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's late leader, over his novel "The Satanic Verses," saying its depiction of...
11:52 PM, Sep 16, 2012
London: Salman Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses' was banned by India four months before Iran's supreme leader late Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for his killing without any proper examination or a judicial process, writes the controversial author in his memoirs. "The Satanic Verses was denied the ordinary life of a novel. It became something smaller and uglier: an insult. And he became the Insulter, not only in Muslim eyes...
05:01 AM, Sep 12, 2012
London: Over two decades after 'Satanic Verses' sparked a never-ending controversy and provoked a 'fatwa' for his head, author Salman Rushdie has only one thing to say to his detractors: 'I did not write it for the mullahs'. The India-born controversial writer who has lived for years under the shadow of his 1988 book, now liberally jokes about the whole issue. Speaking at the Hay Festival of Literature and the...
09:20 PM, Jun 04, 2012
New Delhi: Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial 'The Satanic Verses' as also bestsellers like 'Midnight's Children' and 'Shame', on Saturday denounced "disgraceful vote bank politics" being practised in the country and said "95 per cent of Muslims in India are not interested in violence being done in their name". Returning to India two months after he was stopped from attending the Jaipur Literary Festival, Rushdie spoke at...
02:29 PM, Mar 19, 2012
BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said has criticised Salman Rushdie for making comments on the Indian political situation. ...
11:10 AM, Mar 18, 2012
New Delhi: Controversial author Salman Rushdie on Saturday targetted the Congress party, particularly Rahul Gandhi at the India Today Conclave, saying his presence was blocked in the Jaipur Literature Festival due to "useless electoral calculations". He suggested that this "led to the debacle" of Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Rushdie said "Deobandi bigotry" and "kneeling to mullahs" had not worked for the Congress, alluding to their recent loss in the state...
07:36 AM, Mar 18, 2012
New Delhi: Author Salman Rushdie's literary session at the India Today Conclave has been postponed by a day to Saturday following a sudden change in schedule, the organisers said. The organisers refused to cite any specific reason for the change and said the session would be open for select invitees only. Tight security arrangements are in place here to prevent any trouble during the visit of Salman Rushdie, the controversial...
03:19 PM, Mar 16, 2012
New Delhi: Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has reportedly cancelled a visit to India after it emerged that author Salman Rushdie would be speaking at the same conference. The Express Tribune reported that Imran Khan refused to attend the India Today conclave in New Delhi if Salman Rushdie was also going to be present. A leader from Imran's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Shireen Mazari, issued a statement that Khan cancelled his...
06:49 PM, Mar 14, 2012
New Delhi: Salman Rushdie will return to India this week to speak at a conference, under two months after death threats forced the Booker Prize-winning author to pull out of Asia's biggest literary festival, the event organiser said on Tuesday. Rushdie's attempt to visit India in January brought protests from some Indian Muslim groups, which consider his 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses' blasphemous because of the way it portrayed the...
09:59 PM, Mar 13, 2012
Jaipur: Muslim organisations in Rajasthan on Tuesday said they had not posed a life threat to controversial author Salman Rushdie during his proposed visit to the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). "Ever since the Jaipur Literature Festival ended with a fiasco on January 24, an impression is being created that Muslim organisations of Rajasthan had issued threats to the life of Rushdie or threatened to disrupt the prestigious literary...
01:13 AM, Feb 01, 2012
Kolkata: Opining that banning books is a sin, popular novelist Chetan Bhagat on Saturday said that the people should appreciate the diversity of opinion in our society. "Different people have different views. We must appreciate that. Nothing is absolute in this world," Bhagat said at the Kolkata Literary Meet. While talking about the freedom of speech and expression in books written on religion, he said, "there should be no ban...
09:05 PM, Jan 29, 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
