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HVK Archives: Salman Rushdie granted visa to visit India

Salman Rushdie granted visa to visit India - The Times of India

Posted By Krishnakant Udavant (krishnakant@vsnl.com)
February 5, 1999

Title: Salman Rushdie granted visa to visit India
Author:
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 5, 1999

British author Salman Rushdie has been granted a visa to visit
India for the first time since the late 1980s when New Delhi had
banned his book, The Satanic Verses, BBC radio reported on
Thursday.

The India-born writer has faced a religious death sentence since
1989 when the, then Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
had said the book blasphemed Islam. "The BBC has learnt that Mr
Rushdie's lawyer has already collected the visa and he may make
the trip in the next few weeks," the BBC said. "Mr Rushdie has
a family home in India which he plans to turn into an arts
centre." India was the first country to ban The Satanic Verses.
No independent confirmation of the BBC report was immediately
available.

Meanwhile, ten years after The Satanic Verses outraged the
Islamic world and brought death threats from Muslims, Rushdie
has no regrets about having written the novel.

"I'm content with the book 1 wrote and 1 hope it can now take
its proper place on the bookshelf and be simply read and
studied, so that people can make up their own minds," said the
writer. He complains," It's been discussed in every context
except in the language of literature."

Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called
on Muslims to kill Rushdie for blasphemy in an edict or fatwa
issued on February 14,1989, shortly after the book came out.

The publication of The Satanic Verses and Khomeini's fatwa
prompted protests and riots by Muslims in Pakistan, India,
Turkey and several other countries, who believed Rushdie had
insulted a holy figure. In the ensuing decade, the book's
Japanese translator was killed, and its Norwegian publisher and
Italian translator seriously injured in separate attacks.

Meanwhile, the BJP has welcomed the decision of the Indian high
commission in Britain to issue Rushdie a visa. "Rushdie is of
Indian origin. Why should he be prevented from visiting India
when other people are allowed?" BJP spokesman J.P. Mathur told
reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

He regretted that the then Congress government had banned the
book, "without even turning a page". The Congress, on the other
hand, declined to comment on the granting of the visa beyond
saying that it was for the government of the day to decide such
issues.

Replying to a question, Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi said in
New Delhi that the then government, run by his party, had banned
the book as it had felt that it would lead to communal tension.
"in the interest of maintaining public order, we had banned the
book at that point of time. Mr Rushdie was denied a visa on the
basis of the same logic," he added.

Meanwhile, Naib Imam of Delhi Jama masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari has
opposed the granting of the visa to Rushdie and demanded its
cancellation to maintain social harmony in the country.


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