‘Jaipur wasn’t about Deoband but Cong’

“Jaipur was not about unpredictable Deobandi bigotry. It was about — as it turned out later — pretty bad electoral miscalculations of the Congress. The problem is that freedom of speech is increasingly becoming a casualty to religious fanaticism,political opportunism and public apathy,” Rushdie said.

“Now that I am here,There is a surprising lack of protest or interest,” he pointed out.

The Indian voters,however,are “very smart”,he said. “They have seen through politicians’ games. They don’t want wars being waged in their names. People are more sensible than their leaders. They deserve better leaders,who are non-communal. They must not be silenced. They deserve literature.”

Asked where India is heading amidst protests over books,Rushdie said it was sad that leaders who should be the face of the next generation are behaving in this manner.

The first part of Rushdie’s speech was dedicated to Imran Khan,the Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician who was the only one of the Conclave invitees to have stayed away citing Rushdie’s presence as the reason.

It was left to host Aatish Taseer to take potshots at the others who kept away,including Akhilesh and Omar,citing their “youth and progressiveness”. Playing on Khan’s statement that he was skipping the Conclave because of the “immeasurable hurt” Rushdie had caused to Muslims through The Satanic Verses,Rushdie said that hurt to Islam was not caused by his book but by the fact that there were terrorists being harboured by Imran’s country,that “80 per cent Pakistanis support Osama”.

Imran was starting more and more to look like Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi,Rushdie added in jest.

Religions,Rushdie said,are about beautiful stories but they are after all fiction,and “fictions should not go to war.”

Throughout his interaction,Rushdie treated Pakistan as a sort of antithesis to India,right from his own upbringing. On the intolerance in India,he said,“No matter how bad things may be in India,they are worse in Pakistan.”