Chidambaram says banning 'Satanic Verses' wrong, Rushdie asks how many years to correct 'mistake'

Salman Rushdie on Saturday asked how many years would it take to correct the 'mistake' of banning his book 'Satanic Verses'. He was reacting to P Chidamabaram's statement where he had said that the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to ban Salman Rushdie's book Satanic Verses in 1988 was wrong. "This admission just took 27 years. How many more before the "mistake" is corrected?" he asked on Twitter.  Chidambaram, was a Minister of State for Home Affairs under Rajiv Gandhi from 1986-89. "If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing," he said when asked why it took him so many years to reach such a conclusion.

This admission just took 27 years. How many more before the "mistake" is corrected? https://t.co/qz7t1InXzV

— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) November 28, 2015

Asked if the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi was also wrong, the senior Congress leader said, "Indira Gandhi herself admitted in 1980 that the Emergency was wrong and, if elected to power, she would never impose the Emergency. People believed her and elected her to power again." Speaking about alleged rising intolerance in the country, he said," It is on the rise" and expressed hope that "this moral majoritarianism" will fail comprehensively.

"What is of profound concern to me is the apparent rise of intolerance. Khap panchayats today are more visible and more brazen in dispensing Kangaroo justice. There is rush of bans. Ban jeans, ban authors, ban food, ban artist, ban travel, ban NGO," he said.

With agency inputs