No Rushdie at Jaipur Literature Fest, but debate rages on

While the Jaipur Literature Festival began with suspense and drama over whether Salman Rushdie will be allowed to participate in it, the event ended on a more dramatic note with the author not even being able to address the gathering through a video link.

The people, who had assembled to hear Rushdie, were in for a rude shock when the announcement came at the last moment that the session was being cancelled.

A silence descended upon the gathering as the people reacted in a somber way, and did not even get up from the seats, many of them had been occupying for over an hour to attend the session by the Midnight's Children author.

Rushdie was scheduled to discuss his Booker winning book and its adaptation into a film at the session on the concluding day of the controversy-filled festival.

While an emotional announcement by JLF producer Sanjoy K Roy left many a people aghast and disappointed, some writers and journalists took the opportunity to start a debate from the very platform that was supposed to host Rushdie.

The audience that had responded with cries of 'shame' to the announcement, gave a loud applause to the panelists who launched an impromptu debate at the festival over freedom of expression in India.

The speakers also invited a representative of the groups who had opposed Rushdie's visit.

Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka Tarun Tejpal, actor Rahul Bose and poet Ashok Vajpayee took to the stage. Mohammad Saleem Engineer, National Secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind was invited to debate the issue with them.

Bose started his part of the argument by reading from the Constitution to define what is meant by freedom of expression as the debate discussed various facets of intolerance in the Indian society and in many cases, the hypocrisy of people to oppose it.

"If a film is banned from release, do you ban the filmmaker as well. Even if for a moment I understand that a book has been banned after some people felt it was hurtful, do you ban the writer as well," an agitated Akhtar asked.

"The sad part is that the real problems of Muslims never get addressed and such imaginary problems are immediately taken care of," he said.

Vajpayee said he was all for the demand for lifting of the ban on the book. "If the state starts feeling threatened by a novel, we have already started winning a victory."

The mood turned from that of gloom to that of introspection and applause as the panelists highlighted the issues of concern and also involved the audience in the discussion.

"I do not believe the glory and majesty of Islam can be affected if someone writes a book. Why doesn't the Muslim leadership say they do not care, we believe in our Prophet and we continue to follow him," Tejpal said.

Journalist Shoma Chaudhury, moderating the panel, summed up the situation, calling it a case of "intellectual delinquency". "We are discussing a book which most of us have not read," she said.