LEAD: Rushdie: Police plotted to keep me away from literary fest

Jan 22, 2012, 12:51 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.

Meanwhile, top Rajasthan police officials claimed that information about the death threat came from the federal Home Ministry's intelligence bureau, broadcaster NDTV reported.

But the Home Ministry maintained that no such advisory was issued and its agency had merely shared security concerns of a general nature with the Rajasthan government.

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.

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.

Later this year, Rushdie is to publish a memoir about his experiences of the fatwa and the time he spent in hiding.

At the Jaipur festival Sunday, a group of independent writers and artists demanded the revoking of the ban on The Satanic Verses, the IANS news agency reported. 'We strongly urge the government to reconsider the 23-year-old ban,' the petition submitted to the festival organizers said.

Meanwhile, police stepped up security at Diggi Palace, the festival venue. Nearly 260 authors and tens of thousands of people were attending the festival that concludes on Tuesday. Among the celebrities attending were authors Tom Stoppard, Ben Okri, Vikram Seth and television show host Oprah Winfrey.

Rushdie has made several visits to India over the past decade, including an appearance at the Jaipur festival in 2007. But this visit came under a cloud after India's leading seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, called the government to block his visit saying he had hurt the sentiments of Muslims all over the world.

The issue soon became politically charged as no political party has wanted to anger Muslims before elections in five states from the end of January. India is home to more than 177 million Muslims, who constitute 14.6 per cent of the population.