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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Don’t need a visa to visit, says Rushdie

Don’t need a visa to visit, says Rushdie

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published Published on Jan 11, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 11, 2012

-PTI

Salman Rushdie today said he does not need a visa to visit India and the government made it clear it would not stop him from coming.

The author, reacting to an Islamic seminary’s opposition to his trip to the country, wrote on Twitter: “Regarding my India visit, for the record, I don’t need a visa.”

Yesterday in a statement, Dar-ul Uloom Deoband vice-chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani said the “Indian government should cancel his visa as Rushdie had annoyed the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past”.

The author, who is of Indian origin and holds a British passport and a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, is scheduled to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival that starts on January 20.

Official sources said Rushdie’s PIO card entitles him to visit the country without a visa. “He has travelled to India in the past using the PIO card. We have never stopped him. We have no intention to stop any PIO card-holder to travel to his or her home country in the future either,” a source said.

The 65-year-old author earned the wrath of Muslims worldwide because of the alleged blasphemous content in his novel The Satanic Verses, published in 1988. The novel was banned in India and sparked anger in Islamic nations.

Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa against Rushdie, asking his followers to kill the author. Eventually, Iran found a solution out of the diplomatic mess by saying the fatwa would remain valid but it would not be carried out.

Yesterday, Trinamul minister Sultan Ahmad seconded the Deoband appeal. “I feel it will be good to decline visa to an author who is known to hurt religious sentiments of Muslims. Given the prevailing atmosphere, he should not be given a visa.”

Today, the literature festival organisers spoke of holding up the “best democratic traditions”. Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamworks Productions which is organising the festival, said: “A literary platform like the Jaipur festival provides a space for free speech in India’s best democratic traditions…. In plural societies such as ours, it is imperative that we continue to allow avenues for unfettered literary expression.”

Rushdie has attended several literary events in India in recent years without incident and some observers feel the seminary’s timing to seek a bar on Rushdie when the Uttar Pradesh elections are around the corner is significant.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman today alleged there was a “very big game” behind the visa row and accused the Congress of being behind it.

But Union law minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid asked: “Why should Congress stop this (Rushdie trip)? If there is a legal provision to stop someone then it should be put. But whatever step is taken should be taken within legal framework not outside it.”

The Booker Prize winner has attended the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2000 and the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2007.

Organisers of the Jaipur festival recalled that the gathering has had radical speakers in the past too.

“We had Ayyan Hirsi Ali two years ago, a fiery Somalia-born author who was more explosive than Rushdie,” one of the organisers said.

Rushdie is scheduled to participate in sessions on three consecutive days at the four-day festival. In his first session, the author of Midnight’s Children will be in conversation with British-Indian novelist Hari Kunzru. On January 21, Rushdie, along with authors Rita Kothari and Tarun Tejpal, will discuss the nuances of English with writer Ira Pande. The topic is titled: “Inglish, Amlish, Hinglish: The chutnification of English.”

The following day, Rushdie will take part in a discussion on “Shehar aur Sapna: The City as a Dream” with Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif, and Indian writers Aman Sethi, Meenal Bhagel and Uday Prakash, moderated by poet and writer Ashok Vajpayee.

The Telegraph, 11 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120111/jsp/nation/story_14991030.jsp


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