Imran Khan opts out of 'India Today' meet over Salman Rushdie's presence

Mar 14, 2012 |

Islamabad/New Delhi

Tags:

Pakistan's cricketer- turned-politician Imran Khan on Wednesday pulled out of the upcoming India Today Conclave in New Delhi, citing the presence of controversial author Salman Rushdie at the same event.

Reacting to Khan's decision, the India Today group deeply regretted that he will not address the Conclave because of Rushdie's participation.

In a statement issued by his Pakistan Tehrike-Insaf party, Khan said he ‘could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe.’

Khan was scheduled to participate as a keynote speaker in the conclave being organised by India Today magazine on March 16-17. He expressed his regrets to the organisers. The statement said Khan ‘only received and saw the full programme of the conclave last evening and took action early this morning to cancel his participation’.

The organisers of the conclave announced yesterday that Rushdie would speak at the meet on the theme: "The Liberty Verses – I am What I Am and That's All That I Am".

"We deeply regret that Imran Khan will not address the India Today Conclave because of Salman Rushdie's participation," Aroon Purie, Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group said in a statement in New Delhi.

"The India Today Conclave is a platform for free and frank exchange of ideas. We do not endorse the views of any of our speakers but we do stand for the freedom of expression in all that we do; it's an essential principle of a free nation and free media," he said.

"We wish that Imran had used this opportunity to express his views at the Conclave with all the force and lucidity that he possesses. We can all agree to disagree but we must present our argument," Purie added.

Rushdie was forced to withdraw from the Jaipur Literature Festival in January following protests by Muslim groups. His 1988 novel The Satanic Verses is still banned in India for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/133877" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-05170a8cbe1b988451d574f11de12fba" value="form-05170a8cbe1b988451d574f11de12fba" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80620266" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>