Rushdie allowed virtual permission to speak at Literary fest

Jaipur, Jan 24: With the Salman Rushdie row taking over the Jaipur Literary Festival grandeur, the issue seem to be settling down with Rushdie being allowed to speak at the fest through video conferencing. The matter was revealed by organizers.

Sanjoy Roy, the festival organizer stated that they will go ahead with the video link for Salman Rushdie at 3:45 pm on Tuesday and is expected to continue for an hour. He added that the linking will be within the accordance of law. He added, "We received information from the state government that there is no requirement of permission to be taken for this. We always had the intention that any conversation in this space will be done in accordance with the law of the land."

Rushdie is expected to speak on his book 'Midnight's Children'.

Roy was relieved that the controversy has subsided and commented that Rushdie will only speak on the book 'Midnight's Children' and not on any other banned books of the author. The session will also throw light on the life and times of Rushdie. The author will however take no questions.

Speaking on the threat issued against Salman Rushdie, the organizers said, "According to what we know and what we share with us there was a credible threat. I can't evaluate the threat. It was the information we received which we shared with Salman Rushdie. We did get some intelligence inputs through the state government which we shared with Salman Rushdie."

They stated that the government has not asked for any undertaking with regards to Rushdie's video address.

OneIndia News