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In Jaipur, farce is played out to muzzle Rushdie’s voice

Jaipur Literature Festival organisers cancel author’s video chat amid threats.

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It was like the silence of the lambs. Only, what had just been slaughtered was a basic human right — the right to freedom of expression.

The drama over Salman Rushdie’s cancelled visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival culminated in what seemed like a grand finale on Tuesday. The organisers, who had arranged a video link interview with him, cancelled it amid fears of violence, as Muslim organisations staged protests outside Diggi Palace, the festival venue.

Rushdie described the cancellation as “awful.” “Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy, all get to speak, not just the ones making threats,” Rushdie tweeted.

Thirty angry representatives of various Islamic organisations, led by the All India Milli Council leader, Paiker Farukh, tried to enter the venue in the afternoon in protest against the video address. The organisations had filed a petition at the court of an executive magistrate in Jaipur seeking a directive against Rushdie’s address, following which the court had summoned the festival’s four organisers. But the organisers failed to turn up, a representative of the Muslim delegation said. The police were summoned to placate the protesters.

The decision to call off the video address came after a meeting between the organisers and the leaders of the protesting groups, during which the protesters said, “Even seeing his [Rushdie’s] face is intolerable.”

The crowds gathered at the front lawns, where the video was to be screened, erupted in hoots when Ram Pratap Singh Diggi, owner of the palace, announced that he was disallowing the screening in the face of the threats the festival had received. “I have taken a decision to not allow this video link to go ahead on the advice of the Rajasthan police,” he said.   

The hoots turned to loud cheers when Sanjoy K Roy, the festival’s producer, announced that it was “a fairly idiotic situation”. They had been informed by the police that protesters were seated among the audience and were prepared to start a riot even if Rushdie appeared on the screen. “It’s a tragedy that we have to step down in the fight for freedom of expression,” he said. After a pause, his face fell and a tear rolled down his cheek. The emotional Roy had to be escorted off the stage by the festival’s co-director, Namita Gokhale.

The huge crowd that had come only to see the interview was disappointed and refused to leave the seats. As a result, the policemen and security guards who had surrounded the seating area didn’t budge either. Instead of a commotion, a silence settled over the crowds spilling onto the lawns and passageways for lack of space in the seating area.

At the same time, a group of protesters entered the Diggi Palace premises and staged a silent protest by doing the Namaz in a corner of the front lawns.

Earlier, assistant commissioner of police Virendra Jhala said the owners of the venue had conveyed to them they will not allow the video address fearing repercussions.

The Rushdie session, titled ‘Midnight’s Child’ had been planned for 3.45pm, with the 65-year-old India-born author set to discuss his childhood, his work, problems he’d faced in the past years, and the adaptation of his novel Midnight’s Children into a film. (With inputs from agencies)

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