Salman Rushdie, who was knighted by Britain's Elizabeth II, turns 60 today.
As he struggles in hospital, I wonder why anyone, especially someone who was not even born when The Satanic Verses was published, would want to harm a 75-year old man and a literary treasure, wonders Subhash K Jha.
The development came a day after the India-born author accused the Rajasthan police of lying about a plot to eliminate him to keep him away from the festival, a charge dismissed by the state government which said Intelligence Bureau had given the inputs and it was not concocted.
Rushdie was attacked and stabbed in the neck on Friday while onstage in Chautauqua in Western New York, the New York police said.
Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and was able to talk, a day after the Mumbai-born author was stabbed, in what US authorities said was a 'targeted, unprovoked, preplanned' attack.
Salman Rushdie, the Mumbai-born controversial author who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing The Satanic Verses, was "still undergoing surgery", several hours after being stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident at an event in western New York State on Friday.
The family expressed gratitude to the audience members who bravely leapt to Rushdie's defence and administered first-aid after he was stabbed multiple times at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
Wouldn't it be better to join the celebrations with the vast Hindu majority while at the same time criticising Mr Modi/BJP/RSS for politicising it? notes Shekhar Gupta.
And then we are in our mid-60s and a time of reckoning with one's life - if one believes in Erikson.
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.
'There is a degree of civility, efficiency, cleanliness and cultural ease here that has all but vanished in the squalid, chaotic and rootless Hindi heartland,' says Sunil Sethi.
'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 common ground between a film-maker and a film critic is a mad masochistic love for the movie.'
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction during his career with a sharp critique of established religion and politicians characterising much of his work.
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
'Many who haven't even seen the documentary are claiming that it defames and damages the image of India, makes it sound unsafe, and gives the rapist a forum.' 'This couldn't be further from the truth, and the film shows the best qualities of India and Indians in standing up against evil as much as it shows the unvarnished truth.'
'The more I lived in India, the more I realised that America was my home too.'
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