Salman Rushdie in India

Salman Rushdie

 Salman Rushdie, the famed author of 'Midnight's Children' has been in news ever since it was announced that he'll be visiting the Jaipur Literature Festival - 2012, to be held at Jaipur from 20 to 24 January this year. After that there were a few voices of protest on Rushdie being granted a visa to visit India. Now he has become an election issue too. Amused? It's true. According to a news item published the website of 'The Hindu', dated 11 January, 2012, Omar Abdullah (Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir) has said that visa being given to Salman Rushdie is unlikely to be a big election issue for Muslims, who are more concerned with their day-to-day affairs. Nevertheless, the name of Rushdie has to be discussed on whether that would become an election issue or not and that is what is important.

Rushdie himself has tried to brush aside the controversy surrounding a demand for denial of visa to him, by tweeting that he would be visiting India. He also posted a tweet mentioning: "Regarding my Indian visit, for the record, I don't need a visa."

It may be mentioned here that Rushdie has earned this wrath of the Muslim community all over the world with his controversial 'Satanic Verses' that was published in the year 1988. Earlier too Rushdie was in India to attend Commonwealth Writers Prize awards in 2000 and the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2007. With a view to silence the controversial opinions cropping up Sanjoy Roy, managing director of Teamworks Productions, the organizers of the Jaipur Literature Festival said (as quoted by Times of India (dated 11 January, 2012), "A literary platform like the Jaipur festival provides a space for free speech in India's best democratic traditions."