Suspense continues over Rushdie’s Jaipur visit

By Rizwan Khatik - Fri Jan 20, 11:18 am

Jaipur: A mystery literary session on the Jan 24 roster of the Jaipur Literature Festival called “Midnight’s Child”, without naming the participants, kept fuelling speculation that controversial writer Salman Rushdie could descend on the pink city even as organisers Thursday said he would not be there on the first two days of the Jan 20-24 festival.

“Our stand on Salman Rushdie continues to be the same. He will not attend the festival for the first two days…beyond which we are not sure of his schedule,” Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Production, the organisers of the Jaipur festival, told the press here.

Roy clarified that “the festival has not received any request from the government to stop Salman Rushdie from coming to India”. “The festival has 208 authors and 150 performers Salman Rushdie is a non-story that has been made into a story,” Roy said.

The festival has a glittering line-up of writers and celebrities like television host Oprah Winfrey and writers Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri and playwright Tom Stoppard.

However, fans refused to give up hope on Rushdie’s visit. “There is a session listed on the last day of the festival, Midnights’s Child, which gives no name. Who knows he might come to the delight of his admirers here,” Raj Gupta, a Jaipur-based student of English, told IANS.