Rushdie not be allowed to enter the country

Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, Abul Qasim Nomani demanded that as Rushdie had not yet apologised, he should not be allowed to enter the country. “Indian government should cancel his visa as Rushdie had hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past,” he demanded. Congress’ newly elected Working Committee member Rasheed Masood argued that the literally festival should be called off.

 Samajwadi Party leader Ahmad Hassan came in support of the demand for a ban on his India visit. Salman Rushdie’s India visit, leaders of major political parties like Congress, Samajwadi Party, RLD including the minority cell in the BJP’s Rajasthan unit have asked the state government not to allow him to land in Jaipur. It was a rare view of political unanimity among the ever-fighting rivals that nearly all of them decided to go soft on self-professed ideologies – secularists batting for the religious fanatics and the hardliners seen ideologically diluted on political harshness.

 Rushdie was initially scheduled to participate in a discussion on ‘Midnight’s Child’ with Hari Kunzru on the opening day of the Literature Festival and then to take part in a debate on 'Inglish, Amlish, Hinglish: The chutnification of English' the next day.