By IANS
Mumbai : Over 200 political activists protested author Salman Rushdie’s stay in Mumbai and burnt his effigy Sunday evening, demanding that he should be asked to leave the city.
The activists, led by Farooq Ghosi, the president of the Mumbai unit of the Samajwadi Party, also raised slogans against the Maharashtra and central governments for permitting Rushdie to visit India.
“It was due to Rushdie’s blasphemous writings that 12 innocent youth lost their lives when the police fired on a protest march on them in February 1989,” Ghosi told IANS shortly after the demonstrations at Juhu in northwest Mumbai.
Later in the evening, a delegation comprising leaders of several Muslim organisations like the Raza Academy, the Ulema Council and Jamat-e-Islami was scheduled to meet Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil at his residence in south Mumbai.
They are demanding that Rushdie, who is granted the top category Z-Plus security cover, should not be allowed to stay on in Mumbai. They contend that since Rushdie is not a favourite among Muslims, his continued presence here could ignite passions.
Ghosi said that Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” (1988) had evoked condemnation from the entire Islamic world. Ayatollah Khomeini, then religious leader of Iran, had even ordered the author to be eliminated for his anti-Islamic writings.
Rushdie came to Mumbai quietly Thursday and is staying as a guest of the Godrej family at their sprawling Juhu bungalow.
It is the same place where Pakistani opposition leader and former cricketer Imran Khan had spent a couple of days last fortnight.
Rushdie will take part in a new AIDS initiative being launched by the Godrej group, Parameshwar Godrej, a socialite and member of the family, has said.
Heads turned when Rushdie, accompanied by Parameshwar, visited the Aurus Club at Juhu where he interacted with close friends, including industrialist Gautam Singhania.
Later, he interacted with several film stars who had come to the club, including Sohail Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Zayed Khan, and Riya Sen.
Riya joined Rushdie at his table and the duo chatted away till Friday morning.
During his current tour, Rushdie is expected to stay in Mumbai till next Thursday.
Earlier, he had visited Mumbai, his birthplace, briefly in 2004 after a 16-year exile. Following vehement protests by Muslim organisations, he had then left Mumbai for an undisclosed destination.