Salman Rushdie video discussion to go ahead at Jaipur Lit Fest

JAIPUR: Ending the suspense, Jaipur Literature Festival organisers today said the video session with the controversial author Salman Rushdie will take place as planned after Rajasthan government gave the go ahead.

"We have received information that there was no requirement of any permission," Festival producer Sanjoy Roy told reporters. The five-day festival ends today.

The Rushdie session ---Midnight's Child ---is planned for 3.45 pm where the India-born author will discuss his childhood, his work, problems faced in the past years and the adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children into a film. Rushdie had pulled out of the event citing death threats.

"We are going ahead with the link at 3.45 pm," he said. Roy also said the state government has not asked the organisers to give any undertaking.

A delighted Roy said the video session is expected to be last for about an hour and it will be according to the law of the land.

"It is needless to say that any conversation here will be according to the law of the land. We hope it would happen peacefully," he added.

Roy said the organisers are delighted that the entire controversy over the video link with Rushdie will be put to rest. He said yesterday that Rushdie is currently in Europe.

The 65-year-old author's Satanic Verses has been banned in India for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. The book cast a shadow on the Festival when four authors read out passages from it leading to complaints against them and the organisers in courts in Jaipur and Ajmer.