Isn’t It A Real Shame Salman Rushdie Can’t Return Home Even In The 21st Century?

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Isn’t It A Real Shame Salman Rushdie Can’t Return Home Even In The 21st Century?

Posted by :Unknown at Monday, January 23, 2012||PERMALINK

Labels: #lrose, Jaipur, oprah Winfrey, Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses, Social Web

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Even Oprah Winfrey could be in India for the much celebrated Jaipur literary festival to see the calm beneath the chaos that is India when Rushdie, a celebrated and invited guest and author was forced to stay away.

There is an auspicious time for almost everything in India. Then there is elections one need to watch out for the rest of the matters!

For Salman Rushdie, the celebrated author of ‘Satanic Verses’, an English novel considered offensive by many Muslims, the invitation and the visit n must have been a routine event.

Rushdie, who had to leave India, his mother land, in order to avoid the fatwa of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni on his life in the late eighties, has made many private visits to India in recent years and even attended the Jaipur Literary Festival in 2007.

However this time, he had to abandon his plans at the last minute after receiving intelligence information that paid assassins are on the prowl in Jaipur to take his life.

The circumstances which led to his withdrawal provoked angry reaction from a section of the writers participating in the festival who made a public demonstration of their disgust by choosing to openly and publicly read out parts of the book which remains banned in India even after twenty years!

This obviously was against the law in India, making sure these authors who genuinely were agitated by the obstruction to literary freedom In India, which everyone must be ashamed of, will be subject to legal action and arrest by the police. In a bid to limit the damage and reputation of the event, they have since left the town!

No wonder Oprah Winfrey must have genuinely concerned about all these events going on in swift succession which must have been really chaotic for anyone, who is not aware of the intricacies of the Indian social fabric, which, more than anything else, define the electoral politics of India.

Clearly it is bad timing. It is not sure if the organisers of the festival, who must be well aware of the issues and sensitivities of the vote bank politics of India, which vie for the Muslim votes in any election or the election commission which decided on an earlier than usual timing for elections in five states, needs to be blamed!

Once again, India’s image as a progressive and free democracy has been tarnished by politicising a serious literary event the nation should be very proud to host. The presence and participation of several literary celebrities and distinguished guests demonstrate the status of the event. Celebrities from Michael Ondaatje to Fatima Bhuto who partake in the festival must be disappointed at the turn of events which mar the occasion.

However, the renewed demand to lift the ban on the novel of Rushdie which the chaotic events have spurred as an outcome of the whole episode as well as the decision by Rushdie to address the festival through video conference must offer some consolation to everyone for who free speech is as vital as free air!

Article first published in TECHNORATI as http://technorati.com/politics/article/isnt-it-a-real-shame-salman/

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