Rajasthan gag on Salman Rushdie video talk

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While the Jaipur Literature Festival organisers were busy discussing the pros and cons of linking writer Salman Rushdie to the festival audience via video, more than six criminal complaints were filed in different courts in Jaipur and Ajmer against Rushdie, and against other authors for reading out from his book The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India.

Highly-placed sources, meanwhile, said the government received six threat messages against the author.

Sanjoy Roy, a director of the literature festival, told journalists Monday evening that the session with Salman Rushdie is scheduled for 3.45 pm Tuesday via a video link.

Mr Roy said the organisers are in touch with the Jaipur police, having sent a formal note informing them about the session, but that they had not heard anything from the officials yet. The discussion, he said, will be on Midnight’s Children and its adaptation for a film being directed by Deepa Mehta.

Senior police officers, many of whom have been attending festival sessions, have been telling journalists, off the record, that the session with Rushdie on Tuesday will not take place.

In Jaipur, six criminal complaints were filed, including one by BJP minority cell leader Daulat Khan, against the authors, for hurting sentiments by allegedly reading passages from Satanic Verses. His complaint will come up for hearing Tuesday.

The Milli Council’s Abdul Latif Arco had filed a complaint against those who read out passages. Social worker Ashok Kumar was the first, filing a complaint against the writers and organisers under IPC Sections 153A, 295A and 124.

Muslim Mahasabha’s Nasir Zahid, and two others, Mohammed Naim and Nasim Khan, moved separate complaints in the same way.