Salman Rushdie on Tuesday described as a ‘awful’ the cancellation of his video address to Jaipur Literature Festival, claiming that threat from Muslim groups stifled free speech.
‘Awful,’ the controversial author of Satanic Verses tweeted hours after organisers called off the video address.
"Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats," he said.
He also re-tweeted the terming of the entire episode as a ‘black farce’. The much-anticipated video address by Rushdie at the ongoing JLF was cancelled at the last moment today because of fears of violence as Muslim organisations staged protests.
The decision to call off the video address by the 'Satanic Verses' author came after a meeting festival organisers had with leaders of Muslim organisations. 'Satanic Verses' has been banned in India for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community.
The book cast a shadow on the Festival when four authors read out passages from it leading to complaints against them and the organisers in courts in Jaipur and Ajmer.
"I thought the whole thing was fantastically fishy. The way in which the Congress party in government, or in Rajasthan, and many other parties all stated their opposition, I felt confident that some way would be found to prevent me from coming. And sadly it was," Rushdie said.
"I will come to India many times, do what I want and will not allow these religious gangsters and their cronies in the government to stop me. I will come most certainly and many times; most certainly so deal with it," he said.
The renowned author said he was at a loss to understand why he was disallowed from coming to India when he had already done so a number of times earlier and questioned the argument of threats from fundamentalists as projected.
"Everyone says it's connected to the UP elections and the desire to collect Muslim votes... I have been coming and going a lot. Suddenly, let alone my physical presence, even on screen is unacceptable. Shocking," he observed.
Asked who should be blamed, he replied "in a society, you can't compartmentalise blame. It's the responsibility of everyone.... Currently the leaders who claim to be leaders of Muslims are at fault. The fact that the political system wants to placate those leaders, that is the fault of the political system."
On reports of threat to his life, he said, "It seems incredibly fishy to me. I feel like fool to have given in."
Referring to the names of those who were reportedly paid to target him if he visited India, Rushdie said two of the three were "non-existent" names.
"The Centre denied it. The Mumbai Police denied it. Some in Rajasthan denied it. But I was sent this (email) with knowledge of senior officials. It is a very, very poor state of affairs," he said.
At the same time, he agreed that his presence in India could have caused threat to "everyone" at the festival.
He, however, added that a vast majority of Muslims "does not give a damn whether I come or go. They have their concerns about their economic situation, prospects in the country."
