By IANS,
New Delhi : After his aborted visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival, controversial Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie is expected to be in India this weekend to attend the India Today conclave March 16.
The writer will address a forum, “The Liberty Verses: I am What I am and That’s All That I am” which will be moderated by author Aatish Taseer, son of slain Pakistani politician Salman Taseer.
A source in the India Today group said “Rushdie will be at the conclave”. “He would not have been on the programme list if he had not been coming,” the source from the India Today group told IANS.
The visit is significant in the light of the storm raised by the cancellation of his visit to the DSC Jaipur Literature festival in January following an outcry by some Muslim groups over his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses”, which is banned in India.
The writer who was supposed to visit the country Jan 20 for the festival called off his visit following alleged threats. He also had to desisit from addressing the featival via vedio on the concluding day of the festival.
A member of the Jaipur Literature Festival committee said he had come to know of Rushdie’s “proposed visit from the media”.
A spate of messages on twitter by fans said “Rushdie was expected to be in India this weekend and there seemed to be no controversy about it”. “UP elections over, hence no tamasha now,” a tweet by a fan said.