New Delhi: Congress general secretary
Digvijay Singh on Sunday dismissed Salman Rushdie`s charge that
his presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival was blocked
because of the party`s "useless electoral calculations".
"I respect him but he is talking different from real
situation," he told reporters here when his attention was
drawn to the author`s remarks at the India Today conclave
yesterday.
Rushdie, who has been castigated by fundamentalist Muslim
groups for his book `The Satanic Verses`, had said blocking
his presence in Jaipur "led the Congress party down the road"
in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Referring to the controversy which surrounded the Jaipur
Festival in January which forced him to skip the event, he
said, "What happened there is not Deobandi bigotry... It was
pretty useless electoral calculations. It did not work, Rahul
(Gandhi)."
He suggested that this "led to the debacle" of Congress
in Uttar Pradesh.
PTI
