PCI chairman Markandey Katju called Salman Rushdie a “poor” and “sub-standard writer” who would have remained largely unknown but for his controversial book Satanic Verses.
He also criticised Mr Rushdie’s admirers, saying they suffered from “colonial inferiority complex” that a writer living abroad has to be great. “Salman Rushdie dominated the Jaipur Festival. I do not wish to get into the controversy whether banning him was correct or not. I am raising a much more fundamental issue,” he said.