JOIN USControversial author Salman Rushdie was not allowed to visit Kolkata to promote Deepa Mehta’s film based on his book “Midnight’s Children” because of security reasons.
Sources close to the filmmaker told Deccan Herald on condition of anonymity that Rushdie along with Deepa Mehta and main cast Rahul Bose were supposed to come to Kolkata to promote the film including a press conference at a five star hotel but it had to be cancelled at the last moment.
The author of “Satanic Verses” was also to attend the Kolkata Literary Meet (KLM) at the Kolkata International Book Fair on Thursday and it would have been his last stop after Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. According to sources, the organisation responsible for the book fair, phone calls from police officers and “a senior minister” started coming on Tuesday afternoon directing the organisers to cancel Rushdie’s programme.
“We wanted to hold a press conference but State Intelligence Branch officers told us to give in writing that Rushdie won’t conduct any press conference and so, finally, we to give up,” one of the organisers of KLM told Deccan Herald.
However Joint Commissioner of Police Javed Shamim said: “We did not have any prior information of his (Rushdie) arrival in the city. We do not know anything about it.”
Meanwhile, anticipating Rushdie’s arrival in the city around a hundred people from various Muslim groups had gathered at the Kolkata airport to protest but after they were told that the author was not coming they dispersed.