Salman Rushdie’s Video Conference Cancelled

Controversial author Salman Rushdie’s proposed video link, “The Rushdie session — Midnight’s Child”,  at the Jaipur literature festival was cancelled at the last minute due to the fear of violence following protests by Muslim groups.  

On twitter Rushdie mark the cancellation as “awful” and said he will come again to India very soon ‘despite what happened’. He twitted, “Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats.”

Festival producer Sanjoy Roy said, the cancellation was “unfortunate but necessary”. The owner of Diggi Palace, Ram Pratap Singh, said, he had to take the decision to call off the video link with Salman Rushdie after Rajasthan police suggested.

Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel Satanic Verses which sparked a major controversy in the musilm world,  has been banned in India.

Literary community in the country is outraged and questioning the very core issue of ‘freedom of speech’. Rajasthan government is totally failed in managing the protestors and it is very sad to see how some handful of protestors were able to destroy the essence of India’s premier literary festival. As 26th January is approaching we need to rethink about freedom of expression in India.

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