Rushdie: Indian police plotted to keep me away from literary fest

Jan 22, 2012, 9:55 GMT

New Delhi - Author Salman Rushdie on Sunday accused the Indian police of concocting a death threat against him as a ploy to keep him away from South Asia's biggest literary festival.

The Booker Prize winner on Friday cancelled his appearance at the event in Jaipur, capital of the north-western state of Rajasthan, after the authorities warned him of threats to his life from assassins of the Mumbai mafia.

In posts on Twitter, Rushdie cited a report in The Hindu newspaper that said the Rajasthan police gave false information about the hitmen in order to deter him from attending the event.

'I've investigated and believe that I was indeed lied to,' Rushdie tweeted. 'I am outraged and very angry.' The author said he did not know who gave the orders to the police.

The Hindu quoted the top police official in the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, as saying that they had no information about Mumbai gangsters plotting to kill Rushdie.

But Rajasthan's chief minister, Ashok Gehlot, defended the police saying his government had at no stage asked Rushdie not to attend the festival and had made all the security arrangements for his visit.

Gehlot said there was a security threat to Rushdie, but only from 'local elements' who had planned to protest at the venue.

In his tweets, Rushdie also said it was 'disgusting' that the Rajasthan police wanted to arrest authors Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi who read excerpts from his controversial book, The Satanic Verses, on the opening day of the festival Friday.

Rajasthan police have sought a copy of the video as Muslim groups have threatened legal action against the four writers. The Satanic Verses is banned in India and some Muslim organizations had opposed Rushdie's visit to the festival.

In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be killed over the book claiming it was blasphemous against Islam, and the author was forced to spend more than a decade underground.