Kher was one of the 18 Indians invited to the four-day festival by the organisers but he is the only one whose visa has not been cleared. The other 17 Indian participants have been given visas.
Enraged by Pakistani-origin Canadian writer Tarek Fatah's critical remarks about their country, two Pakistani writers on Friday walked out of the inaugural session of the Indore Literary Festival.
'Main koi rootha nahin hoon for denying me a visa. I am baffled, and a bit hurt.'
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit has called up Anupam Kher and offered him a visa to travel to that country if he has applied for the same but the Bollywood actor declined the offer, saying he has already taken up other assignments on the scheduled dates.
'Our grandparents' generation knew one another.' 'In our generation, you could go a lifetime without meeting someone from the other country,' British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie tells Rahul Jacob.
Mark Tully on the India he loves.
