Rejecting Salman Rushdie's charge that it had concocted the story about a plot to eliminate him to keep him away from India, the Rajasthan government on Sunday said the information was provided by the Intelligence Bureau.
Salman Rushdie may have skipped the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, but his controversial novel The Satanic Verses continued to create a buzz at the event.
Amid the controversy over Salman Rushdie's India visit, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Saturday said that the Congress will be looking to exploit the issue to the hilt to win over Muslims voters in Uttar Pradesh.
Disappointed at Salman Rushdie not attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, Pulitzer prize-winning author David Remnick has said the "persecution" meted out to the India-born writer is an "outrage" against free expression.
Continuous projection of Rushdie-like issues, as vital to Muslims, comes in the way of development as their priority requirement, says Saeed Naqvi
Even as uncertainty looms over Salman Rushdie's appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the India-born author himself is not giving any hints about his plans to visit India and has maintained a stoic silence on Twitter. The Midnight's Children author has logged on to the microblogging site Twitter regularly and commented on various issues, occasionally tweeting several times a day.
The author faces threat from homegrown terror outfits as well as organisations with political interest. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Author Salman Rushdie's visit to India to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival is clouded in uncertainty even as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said his trip might lead to security problems.
Adding to the opposition to author Salman Rushdie's proposed visit to India, another Muslim sect Darul Uloom Farangimahal has issued a "fatwa" in Lucknow, justifying protests against the visit. "All Muslims, without flouting the law, should oppose through every possible means, the visit of the person who used insulting words against the Prophet so that he cannot set his foot in this country where crores of Muslims live," Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahal said.
Opposing controversial author Salman Rushdie's visit to India, Islamic Seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on Monday said the government should cancel his visa as he had hurt religious sentiments of Muslims in the past.
'Let us rescue history from the leftist high priests of history. In the process, let us also rescue history from the narrow mindset of the political right that has reduced reconstruction of history to an exercise in political victimhood.' Shashi Shekhar on the furore over the removal of an essay on the Ramayana from the syllabus of Delhi University.
Deepa Mehta offers a sneak peek of her new film.
'The pride of the devoted Seinfeld fan is that he happens to love a show that doesn't take his love for granted, so that even on repeat viewings he is never really sure what directions an episode might take,' observes Sreehari Nair.
The macroeconomic implications of successful Iranian Bourse selling oil denominated in non-dollar terms are in fact profound for the world of finance.
Ashok Gehlot may very well pat himself for winning over a few Muslim votes, but he has simply provided the template for the next offended group: The past is often the prologue to the future, says Rohit Pradhan.
The much awaited question of whether Salman Rushdie would be present at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 was finally answered a few minutes ago when Sanjoy Roy, the festival's producer, told us that the author would be addressing the festival audience via a video link at 3:45 pm on Tuesday.
As the four authors who read out from The Satanic Verses have been asked to leave Jaipur, yet another speaker steps across the line. Rediff.com's Abhishek Mande takes you through the day in pictures and videos.
The Salman Rushdie row refused to die down on Sunday with a police complaint being filed against the four authors who read out portions from the controversial author's banned book Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Two days after he scrapped his plans to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival citing threats to his life, an "angry" Salman Rushdie on Sunday charged that he was lied to by the Rajasthan police, who "invented" a plot to keep him away from the event.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, the president of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat says people will denounce Rushdie and hurl shoes at him if they find him. The blasphemer should be ready for such a reception, he adds.
Over two decades after 'Satanic Verses' sparked a never-ending controversy and provoked a 'fatwa' for his head, author Salman Rushdie has only one thing to say to his detractors: 'I did not write it for the mullahs'.
What's in a name? A lot. At least writer Salman Rushdie believes so. The renowned novelist took to Twitter on Monday night to slam social networking website Facebook for deactivating his account over confusion about his real name.
It has been a helluva Day One at the Jaipur Literature Festival. In perhaps what has been one of the most stellar line-up of the festival, rediff.com saw some of the greatest names in literature and journalism walk the grounds of Diggi Palace, the venue of the festival. Abhishek Mande reports.
If the Food Security Bill is enacted as per the draft, then women shall be considered the 'head of the household' and the potential implications are staggering, says T V R Shenoy.
Days after his reading from The Satanic Verses created a furore and resulted in a police case, author Hari Kunzru on Sunday said he did not believe he had broken the law by reading from a downloaded segment of the book and had no intentions to hurt the feelings of anybody.
Government on Tuesday ruled out barring Salman Rushdie from visiting India in the wake of a demand by a top Islamic seminary to cancel his visa even as the controversial author said he does not need a visa to come to this country.
Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa talked to leaders across the religious and social spectrum on their views on the move to ban Bhagavad Gita.
The Gujarat government slammed Jaswant's book titled Jinnah: India-Partition, Independence, accusing him of denigrating the image of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, who was a Gujarati and held in high esteem by people across Gujarat and rest of the India for his role during India's freedom struggle against the British rulers.
Oprah Winfrey in an Exclusive Interview with CNN-IBN's Suhasini Haider says she is impressed by Salman Rushdie.
'The common ground between a film-maker and a film critic is a mad masochistic love for the movie.'
The actor confirms the same on twitter.
An influential American magazine has listed almost half a dozen Indians including Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and novelist Salman Rushdie, in a list of world's top 100 'public intellectuals'. Journalist-author Fareed Zakaria and San Diego-based neuroscientist V S Ramachandran, historian Ramachandra Guha, political psychologist Ashis Nandy and environmentalist Sunita Narain are also on the list.
The longlist includes Summertime by JM Coetzee, who is one of only two novelists to have won the Booker Prize twice with Life & Times of Michael K in 1983 and Disgrace in 1999.
Booker Award winning Indian-origin novelist Salman Rushdie has said he plans to pen down his experiences of a decade in hiding, after a death fatwa was issued against him by the Iranian clergy. The novelist of 'The Satanic Verses' unfolded his plans to write about his dark days. Rushdie, 62, was forced into hiding in 1989 for a decade after Iran's late spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him for his book The Satanic Verses.
There has always been a risk-taking edge to Imran Khan. Like him or hate him, it had to be someone like him to finally threaten to demolish the Pakistani establishment, explains Shekhar Gupta.
Known for her daring choice of subjects in filmmaking, director Deepa Mehta has now taken up yet another challenge that of adapting Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children into a film.
India-born controversial author Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' has established an unassailable lead over five other contenders in global public voting for the Best of the Booker award.
Controversial India-born British author Salman Rushdie was knighted by the Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday for his "services to literature." Muslims around the world had condemned the award when it was announced last year in the Monarch's Birthday Honours list.
The Booker prize winning author dismissed the film publicly in a speech at Altanta's Emory University, saying it "piles impossibility on impossibility". The writer called the book and movie nothing more than "feel-good" and complained about various portions of the story.
Briton Hilary Mantel has won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall. Mantel's book was picked from a shortlist which included books by authors like A S Byatt, J M Coetzee, Adam Foulds and Sarah Waters.