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January 24th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Commentators said his forced withdrawal from the festival was a “black
stain” on India’s
reputation as the world’s largest democracy, while one adviser said it had
raised serious questions over the festival’s future.
“This is a watershed moment for the festival. How can it go forward and
where can it go forward? It is an issue now and must be resolved. They have
built a huge festival and it is terrible to see it jeopardised but these are
serious issues,” David Godwin, one of Britain’s top literary agents
told The Daily Telegraph.
The author had originally been due to appear in person as the festival’s
headline author along with such names Sir David Hare, Tom Stoppard and Oprah
Winfrey, but was forced to delay after India’s most influential Islamic
seminary called on the government to stop him entering the country. The
Darul Uloom Deoband said he could never be forgiven for his ‘blasphemous’
1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which remains banned in India and throughout
the Muslim world.
Plans for him to appear towards the end of the festival were also abandoned
after dubious police intelligence reports claimed a team of hired assassins
were travelling to Jaipur to kill him.
The organisers’ final fallback plan was for Sir Salman to appear by a
videolink for a discussion on his celebrated novel Midnight’s Children,
which was named the best Booker prize winner of the last 40 years.
Earlier, the organisers announced the session would go ahead after officials
told them they did not need permission for Sir Salman to address the
festival by remote video link. But barely 15 minutes before it started, they
announced they had been forced to cancel it after police warned the owner of
the venue of serious violence.
“The police commissioner told us there would be violence in the venue and
a riot outside where thousands were gathering if we continued. Our host was
unwilling to bear responsibility for ‘lathi’ (bamboo truncheon) charges and
possible deaths in a venue full of children and old people,” leading
author William Dalrymple, one of the festival organisers, told The Daily
Telegraph.
“I feel personally disgraced by this, that after three weeks of struggle
we had to give in to those who wish to suppress free speech. When Salman
took his decision not to come on Friday he said ‘I can’t imperil the
audience or my fellow writers or any of you.’ We too found ourselves in the
same position and in the end, given our hosts position, we had no option.
It’s a bad day, and a horrible moment for us all.”
The announcement, which was made to around 2,000 people waiting for the
session to begin on the Diggi Palace venue’s large front lawn, was met with
jeers.
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