New York: An "angry" Salman Rushdie claims he has found out that the intelligence provided to him by Rajasthan police about threat to his life if he attended the Jaipur Literature Festival was concocted to prevent him from going to India.
Rushdie took to microblogging site Twitter to vent his
anger and responded to reports in Indian media that said
"Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie."
Rushdie tweeted, "Rajasthan police invented plot to keep
away Rushdie' I've investigated, & believe that I was indeed
lied to. I am outraged and very angry."
Responding to a comment to his tweet, Rushdie said he
does not know if the false intelligence information was given
by Rajasthan police under instructions from someone.
"Don't know who gave orders. And yes I guess the same
police who want to arrest (authors) Hari, Amitava, Jeet and
Ruchir. Disgusting," he said responding to a comment on
whether it is the same police who now want to arrest writers
for reading passages of his banned work 'The Satanic Verses'
at the festival.
Rushdie also posted a link to a news report that said
local intelligence officials in Rajasthan had "invented"
information about the assassination plot against him to keep
him from attending the literary event. His accompanying tweet
read, "Here's the story. Astonishing."
The author had dropped plans to attend the literature
festival saying he was informed by intelligence sources in
Maharasthra and Rajasthan that paid hitmen from the Mumbai
underworld will "eliminate" him if he came to India.
Rushdie had expressed doubts about the "accuracy" of the
intelligence but said in a statement that it would be
"irresponsible" on his part to still attend the festival and
put the lives of other authors and participants in danger.
In protest, authors Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Ruchir
Joshi and Jeet Thayil had read passages of 'The Satanic
Verses', a controversial 1988 novel by Rushdie that is banned
in India. Police are now demanding to see tapes of the
recordings of the authors reading from the banned book.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 09:01