Rushdie issue racked up for UP polls: Uma Bharti

New Delhi: Salman Rushdie's absence at the Jaipur Literature Festival has turned into a full-blown political battle, with the BJP alleging that the entire controversy has been created keeping UP election in mind, while All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded that the readers of 'The Satanic Verses' should be arrested.

"The Salman Rushdie controversy is being made an issue because of the UP elections. A person has the right to express himself till his expressions do not let down another person. The row over Rushdie is being guided by the UP elections," said BJP leader Uma Bharti.

"The reading of the verses from the banned book was blasphemous. I demand the Government of Rajasthan must book a criminal case against the two writers and also the organisers. The entire episode is a threat to the secular threads of our Constitution," said Asaduddin Owaisi.

Authors Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar had on Friday read out passages from the book as a way of registering their protest over Rushdie's absence from the Festival before the organisers stopped them.

An hour later, writer Ruchir Joshi and poet Jeet Thayil repeated the act of defiance. The organisers stopped them too and issued a press release later on saying it had nothing to do with the incident and that reading from the book was the authors' and writers' individual, personal decision.

Meanwhile, writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi said that filters of any kind, that are imposed, "don't help anyone".

"I think for any person, purity of expression is extremely important," he added.

Pakistan writer Mohammed Hanif expressed his sadness about the absence of the author from the Festival and spoke about the concept of self-censorship as a Pakistani journalist.

He also said it was disappointing that the Indian government could not provide security to Salman Rushdie.

Meanwhile, adding a new twist to the controversy over Salman Rushdie's participation in the Jaipur Literature Festival, sources in Mumbai Police denied giving any inputs about paid assassins.

The sources countered the Booker-winning author's claim that paid assassins were out to get him. The sources told CNN-IBN there were no intelligence inputs about a threat to Rushdie and that they gave no inputs regarding paid assassins eyeing Rushdie.

Rushdie on Friday called off his Jaipur visit saying there were threats to his life from the underworld.

Rushdie issued a statement through the organisers of the festival saying that he will not be coming to the event. "Very sad not to be at Jaipur. I was told Bombay mafia don issued weapons to two hitmen to "eliminate" me. Will do video link instead. Damn," Rushdie tweeted.

Jaipur Literature Festival organiser Sanjoy Roy had made the announcement saying that Rushdie decided not to attend as there was a threat to his life in India.

"There are intelligence inputs from Rajasthan and Maharashtra that paid assassins are on their way so he wants to be responsible to himself, people at the festival and everyone," said Roy.

Influential Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband had demanded that Rushdie should not be allowed into India over his book 'The Satanic Verses' published more than 20 years ago. There was also a fatwa that anybody willing to hurl a shoe at Rushdie would be paid Rs 1 lakh.

Video-conferencing woes:

Meanwhile, on reports that Salman Rushdie was planning to hold a video conference with the festival, Rajasthan Home Ministry sources said the information had not been shared with them so far.

"Salman Rushdie's video conferencing issue has not been shared with us so far. We are talking to organisers about the topic and if we are satisfied with the topic and content, we will allow video conferencing," they said.

"So far the Jaipur Literature Festival is going fine. We expect it to conclude peacefully," they added.