A week ago I mentioned that some pressure was being exerted to keep Salman Rushdie away from his scheduled appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival, which starts in a few days; now, in a shocking development, Akhilesh Kumar Singh reports in the Times of India that, shamefully, Salman Rushdie persuaded to stay away from Jaipur Literature Festival.
A black day for India, and for the festival -- and the 'Times View' at the end of the article sums it up well enough:
A black day for India, and for the festival -- and the 'Times View' at the end of the article sums it up well enough:
Salman Rushdie's decision to not attend the Jaipur Literary Festival sends out all the wrong signals.Meanwhile, see also Nilanjana S. Roy's fine piece in the Business Standard, Listening to Rushdie, in which she notes:
The argument for welcoming Rushdie to Jaipur is a simple one. His early works, which include Midnight's Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses, are unsettling and uncomfortable, and we need that discomfort much more in 2012 than we need the safe formulas of the new bestsellers.Indeed.