The organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival held a meeting with Muslim organisations on Monday. The Jamaat-e-Islami said it has no objection if someone linked any author through video.
“But we want the law to be applied and no one should dare violate the law,” said Jamaat-e-Islami’s Salim Engineer. The organisers asked Mr Engineer and others to be present in case the video conference takes place.
“We want nothing other than that the law should be followed. If someone breaks the law, we hope the authorities will take action. Otherwise we use our democratic right,” Mr Engineer said.
Mr Engineer said there were some elements with fundamentalist agendas “but we won’t let them create a problem here.”
In Ajmer, Muslim Ekta Manch’s Muzaffar Bharati had filed a criminal complaint against Rushdie and four other authors, including Hari Kunzru.