Jaipur Literary Festival: Rushdie tweets, but stays mum over visit

JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: While Jaipur Literary Festival organizers on Thursday said they want to move ahead with the show and do not wish the event to be hijacked by needless controversy, Booker-winning author Salman Rushdie seemed in the mood for fun when he tweeted, “Simi said the only Salman she liked, worked in Bollywood. So all that sm-arming up to me last time I was in Bombay was fake? Such a surprise.”
The joke was inspired by the government’s intelligence report that warned of a threat to Rushdie from the fundamentalist Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).The threat was satirized by a website on Wednesday, which “reported” how several journalists mistook SIMI for TV show hostess Simi Garewal, and wondered why she was being such a threat to the London-based author.
Soon after his first tweet, Rushdie was at it again: “Yes, I know it was a satirical news report about Simi. Couldn’t resist joining in the fun.”
Festival producer Sanjoy Roy said, “There are 250 other authors at the festival. Happy to take question as long as it’s not on Salman Rushdie.” He also said, “We have no status about Rushdie so far,” adding, that the organizers have been in constant touch with the writer.
These ambiguous remarks came after the festival organizers met representatives of a few Muslim organisations who came to Diggi Palace, the venue of the four-day event.
“We demanded withdrawal of the invitation to Rushdie. But the organisers refused, saying it was for Rushdie to take a call,” said Anwar Miya, secretary of Jaipur’s Jama Masjid.
Additional commissioner of police, Jaipur (law & order), Biju George Joseph, said they had no information about Rushdie’s visit.
IB put on alert as Rushdie visit looms The Intelligence Bureau is scanning registration data of the Jaipur Literary Festival following reports that several Deobandis have reached Jaipur to protest author Salman Rushdie’s proposed visit. Police are checking details of visitors registering at the festival. Sources said some organizations sent threat letters to the state government after which Delhi was informed.
14 B’wood bigwigs to speak at lit fest In the earlier years, just a handful of celebrities regist-ered their presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival, but, this year over 14 major Bollyw-ood names and several from theater would be seen. Apart from the regular stars, this year there will be names like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anu-pam Kher, Vishal Bhardwaj , Rahul Bose, Kabir Bedi, Girish Karnad, Ila Arun, and Prasoon Joshi.