The shadow of a controversy

January 22, 2013: I landed in Jaipur yesterday afternoon. Later, I went to a private dinner hosted by my friend couple for me. They wanted me to introduce few more prominent citizens of Jaipur.

In Jaipur, after the controversy over staging of a theatre by a Pakistani theatre group at the Jaipur Theatre Festival, yet another controversy, this time involving the Jaipur Literature Festival 2013, is casting a shadow on the LitFest.

The impending visit and participation of authors Jeet Thayil, Ruchir Joshi, Amitva Kumar and Hari Kunzru, who had read out passages from Salman Rushdie’s banned book The Satanic Verses of Koran last year, is being opposed by Muslim groups who have warned the organisers asking them not to allow these authors to participate.

Apart from this, RSS and few other organisations are opposing the visit of Pakistani authors to Jaipur as well. As the LitFest gets embroiled in a controversy. Let's see how it goes.

ess bee