Bangalore: The so-called secular political parties have once again succumbed to political fatwas and as TV presenter Gaurav Kapur rightly said, if Rusdie doesn’t come, the government should stop pretending that it has a spine.

While uncertainty looms over the controversial novelist Salman Rushdie’s India visit, leaders of major political parties like Congress, Samajwadi Party, RLD including the minority cell in the BJP’s Rajasthan unit have asked the state government not to allow him to land in Jaipur. It was a rare view of political unanimity among the ever-fighting rivals that nearly all of them decided to go soft on self-professed ideologies – secularists batting for the religious fanatics and the hardliners seen ideologically diluted on political harshness.

The Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, Abul Qasim Nomani demanded that as Rushdie had not yet apologised, he should not be allowed to enter the country. “Indian government should cancel his visa as Rushdie had hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past,” he demanded. Congress’ newly elected Working Committee member Rasheed Masood argued that the literally festival should be called off.  Samajwadi Party leader Ahmad Hassan came in support of the demand for a ban on his India visit.  

Rushdie was initially scheduled to participate in a discussion on ‘Midnight’s Child’ with Hari Kunzru on the opening day of the Literature Festival and then to take part in a debate on 'Inglish, Amlish, Hinglish: The chutnification of English' the next day. However, after immense political pressure, it was learned that the organizers are asked delist the noted writer, surrendering to the regressive mullah-maulvi’s Fatwa.

However, Sanjay Roy, the producer of the event said in a two-line statement, “Rushdie will not be in India Jan 20 due to a change in his schedule. The festival stands by its invitation to the author." But reports suggest that the Midnight’s Children author is politely asked to stay away from the Pink City apparently for the political gains.

India has seen a growing trend of intolerance against writers and artists off late and has also witnessed a lot more restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression. Now as the government takes the route of minority appeasement, Salman Rushdie is just a pawn in the dirty business of politics, and will be used and discarded by the political class just because the polls are round the corner.