New Delhi: Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on Wednesday said there should be a life ban on Salman Rushdie`s entry into India, and that the government should decide "at the earliest" on the issue without giving "excuses".
While responding to the law minister Salman Khurshid`s
response to his call of barring the writer from entering the
country Vice-Chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani said, " This
man(Rushdie) should be barred for life from entering into
India and the government can not give the excuse of PIOs".
The government has several ways of keeping the writer out
of the country and it is a matter of faith, Nomani said.
Khurshid today said that anybody having objections to the
provision of PIO not requiring visa to visit the country can
take up their complaints with the competent authority or
courts.
Noting that under the existing provisions, a Person of
Indian Origin (PIO) can visit the country without any visa and
that Rushdie could be possibly be trying to come here
likewise, he added "but the implications of legal rights that
overseas Indians have...can be tested before competent
authority or before the courts, if the need be."
Earlier on January 9, Deoband had said the government
should cancel Rushdie`s visa as he had hurt the religious
sentiments of Muslims in the past leading to the current row.
Rushdie, 65, who had invited the wrath of Muslims due to
his novel `The Satanic Verses` is set to attend the Jaipur
Literature Festival this month end.
The Indian-origin author visited the literary
extravaganza in the Pink City in 2007.
While Rushdie has brushed aside opposition to his India
trip saying he does not need a visa to visit the country.
PTI
