Banning Salman Rushdie’s book was wrong: P Chidambaram

Former Union law minister H R Bhradwaj had justified the move of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for banning the book of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. Janata Dal United leader KC Tyagi referred the episode to be surprising after a gap of 27 years.NCP leader Majeed Memon acknowledged that remarks in this book may create chaos and could prove to be an impediment to peace. “How many more before the “mistake” is corrected?” he asked on Twitter.

“So… It would appear the president bought my book today”, he posted.

The same year, Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against Rushdie and called for his death.

Earlier in 2012, the author had to pull out from the Jaipur Literature Festival citing threats by some Muslim groups and had to even cancel a subsequent video address in the same festival. “We need to liberate ourselves from entire culture of proscribing books, periodical social media, and films”, Tewari added, ANI reported.

Lauding Rajiv Gandhi, he said there is no one till date who is as forward looking as the former prime minister. “Indira Gandhi herself admitted in 1980 that the Emergency was wrong and, if elected to power, she would never impose the Emergency”. When the audience asked why it had taken him so long to come to his conclusion on the Rushdie book, Chidambaram said: “If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing”. “I hope the Congress Party takes some lessons from it and does not constantly become intolerant to every comment in the country”, said BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli. He noted the “increasing tide of illiberalism and intolerance is frightening”. Expressing firm faith in the Constitution, he said: “I believe that the Constitution is the most powerful challenge to illiberal tendencies”.