Officials of All India Milli Council, Muslim Mahasabha and BJP are the complainants against those who read Rushdie at Jaipur Lit Fest, 2012

From: The Times of India
Jaipur Literature Festival: Rushdie row turns ugly, suspense over video conference

PTI | Jan 23, 2012, 09.24PM IST

JAIPUR: The row over Salman Rushdie deepened on Monday with five complaints being filed against the four authors who read out passages from his banned "Satanic Verses" at the literature festival and its organisers, as suspense grew whether his video address will take place on Tuesday.

As the controversy over the 65-year-old India-born author continued to dog the festival for the fourth day, a festival organiser Sanjoy K Roy said the video address will go ahead as scheduled at 3.45pm on Tuesday.

"We are figuring out the best way to do that. We are trying to ensure that we are able to go ahead in a way that does not jeopardise or put anyone at risk," he told reporters.

Roy said some clarifications sought by police to their letter have been given in a second communication.

He claimed that organisers have not been told by police that permission would be required for the video link.

A senior government official said on Monday night that police have sought some details from the organisers relating to Rushdie's video conferencing and no decision was taken from the government's side in this matter so far. He said the organisers will have to take permission.

The four complaints before local courts in Jaipur and one in Ajmer, all in Rajasthan, sought directions to police to lodge FIRs against the persons named and to probe the matter, police sources and human rights activist Kavita Srivastava said.

Those named in the complaints were authors Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi and the three organisers--Namita Gokhale, William Dalrymple and Sanjoy Roy.

Abdul Latif in his capacity as secretary of All India Milli Council and Muslim Mahasabha are among those who filed the complaints, one of them which is likely come up in court on Tuesday.

According to Kavita, a member belonging to BJP minorities cell is among the complainants.

The complaint in Ajmer was lodged by Muzaffar Bharti, who represents a local group, in his personal capacity.
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