Two months after he was forced to skip a literary fest in Jaipur, controversial writer Salman Rushdie on Saturday evening attended a function in the national capital amid tight security.
The controversial author of The Satanic Verses, which was banned in India owing to protest from a section of Muslims, attended the 'India Today Conclave' at Taj Palace attended by a select group invitees.
He spoke at a session with the theme 'Liberty versus: I am what I am and that's all that I am'. Rushdie had to cancel his visit to Jaipur in January to attend the Literary Fest there after Muslim organisations threatened to protest against his presence.
Organisers also had to cancel his address through a video link fearing violence. The author had in January had asserted that he would come to India whenever his busy schedule permits without allowing ‘these religious gangsters and their cronies in the government to stop me’ and asked the government to ‘deal with it’.
His presence at the Conclave had prompted Pakistan's cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan to pull out of the event. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party chief Khan had said that he ‘could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe.’
Anticipating protests, security was strengthened in and out of the five-star hotel.