Salman Rushdie: Spurned at Home, Decorated Abroad

India-born Salman Rushdie will skip India’s biggest literary fest – Jaipur Literature Festival that opened in the northern Indian city of Jaipur today – amidst reports that the novelist’s life is under risk from contract murderers linked to the Mumbai underworld. Some hardliner Islamic groups had earlier demanded the Indian government to deny entry visa to the 64-year-old author, but Mr. Rushdie himself tweeted  later that he holds a Person of Indian Origin card (issued to non-resident Indians) and therefore does not require a visa to visit India. Mr. Rushdie is under fire from Islamic groups for his work, The Satanic Verses that some Muslims say portrays Islam in bad light. Following the publication of this book, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran had infamously issued a fatwa against the author on February 14, 1989 proscribing the book and declaring a bounty on his head of over $2 million

The Jaipur Literature Festival is a five-day annual affair where authors Michael Ondaatje and Ben Okri, playwright Tom Stoppard, journalists David Remnick and Philip Gourevitch and TV host Oprah Winfrey, among others are participating. In the past, the festival has hosted the likes of Tina Brown, Vikram Seth, Martin Amis, and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.

Earlier this month, the Indian government hosted its Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Overseas Indians Day) – an annual jamboree where it celebrates achievements of non-resident Indians (NRIs) and people of Indian descent abroad. However, Salman Rushdie, one of India’s most illustrious sons is unwelcome to his country of birth as his presence at Jaipur would create “a law and order situation,” according to the government. Salman Rushdie is no ordinary person – he is the winner of Booker of Bookers literary award and — one of the greatest living writers in the world today. Many in the Indian media have attributed this government stance as an act of appeasing the Muslims. India’s biggest state, Uttar Pradesh (UP) is due to hold assembly elections later this year where Muslims constitute 18 per cent of the total voters.

 Darool Ulum Deoband, an Islamic seminary in UP has issued a fatwa against Mr. Rushdie saying that he “had annoyed the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past.” Incidentally, both in Delhi and in Jaipur – the Union and State governments – are controlled by the ruling Indian National Congress. The Union and State governments stand accused of playing to the gallery saying that a law and order situation will arise in wake of the author’s visit to Jaipur.