Writers and co-directors Namita Gokhale (left) and William Dalrymple at a Jaipur Literature Festival event on Thursday. PTI

On Thursday, a day after unnamed home ministry officials in Delhi issued a rather vague yet forbidding warning that Simi leader Saquib Nachan was “exploring the option of targeting Salman Rushdie”, and Mumbai’s Raza Academy announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to anybody who hurls a slipper at Rushdie if he shows up in India, Hotel Diggi Palace, the venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival, was alive with activity and anticipation. Men were hammering bamboos into the ground, yards of colourful cloth was being rolled out to deck up the shamianas, mikes were being tested, and people were chattering over tiny kulhads of tea. Despite the security bandobast, and tension and speculation over will-he-won’t-he a day before the five-day litfest begins, the air was informal and inviting.
And yet, a hush would fall over the litfest’s three dramatis personae every time a question on Rushdie was popped.
It was amusing to watch the litfest’s three directors — writer, publisher Namita Gokhale, writer-historian William Dalrymple, and Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Films — hold forth on how awesome and big Jaipur Literature Festival had become in just five years (described by some, according to Dalrymple, as “Hay-on-Wye on acid” and “the world’s sexiest litfest”), discuss in interesting detail some of the 258 authors who will be in attendance this year, and yet bolt the moment anyone uttered “Salman Rushdie”. Getting them to talk about Rushdie was like pulling teeth, theirs.
Mr Roy began the press conference by issuing a gag order of sorts: “I will make a statement on Salman Rushdie and after that no questions on the topic.”
Rushdie, he said, will “not be in Jaipur over the next couple of days... But we stand by our invitation.” This was followed by the usual spiel about freedom of expression, supporting free speech as long as things were said and done in a democratic fashion. But before the floor was opened to questions from journalists, the gag order was reiterated: “We’ll take questions, but not on Salman Rushdie.” As if.
When asked to explain what he meant by “we stand by our invitation” — had the organisers reassured Rushdie that there was adequate security and that it was safe to attend the litfest? — Mr Roy said, “We are in touch all the time” and changed the topic.
Outside the Baitha, where the press conference was held, the only topic of discussion was whether Rushdie will or won’t attend the festival. Since there was no clear answer, there was a lot of guesswork, both ways. The litfest’s schedule, as it stands today, has a total of 136 sessions. Session No. 117, which was earlier titled “Midnight’s Child” without any details, is now a blank box. It’s one of the first sessions on January 24.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Roy, Ms Gokhale and others had met leaders of the Rajasthan Muslim Forum, an umbrella organisation of about a dozen Muslim organisations, including the Jamaat-e-Islami.
The forum’s spokesperson told this newspaper that on Friday, “Jumme ki namaz ke baad”, they will pass a resolution. While the spokesperson didn’t share details of the resolution, he said that they will keep a constant vigil on the litfest venue and “if he comes, we will protest, peacefully”. People, he explained, are on standby and the moment Rushdie is spotted, they will materialise and start protesting. Late at night, after a meeting with the cops, the protest plan was dropped.