Kolkata:
He did not name Salman Rushdie, he did not name The Satanic Verses. But celebrated author Vikram Seth today slammed the government for its response to the controversy over Mr Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
"The Rushdie row is a disgraceful exhibition of suppression of heart," Mr Seth said.
Mr Seth was speaking at the Kolkata Literary Meet and in his inaugural speech condemned the clampdown in the country of liberty of thought.
He slammed the government for playing political games with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections.
The Jaipur Literature Festival ended two days ago without any participation from writer Salman Rushdie. A video chat scheduled for the afternoon was called off by the organizers of the event and the owners of the venue. They said the police had advised them that protesters at the venue and elsewhere in the city could trigger violence.
Mr Rushdie tweeted, "Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats."
Later, he told NDTV's Barkha Dutt from London, "I am at a loss to understand why it's happened now, other than, of course, what everyone has said, that it's somehow connected to the UP elections and the desire to collect the Muslim vote in those elections. But, I've visited India, as you know Barkha, a number of times in these last years; five or six times in the last eight or nine years. I've even spoken at the Jaipur Festival with you, four years ago. I spoke at the India Today Conclave in Delhi last year. I brought my family for a several weeks-long holiday in India the year before that. I've been coming and going a lot and it's astonishing to me that suddenly not only my physical presence, but even my image on a video screen is considered to be unacceptable. I think it's pretty shocking."
Expressing regret over a situation that he described as "fairly idiotic", Sanjoy Roy, the main organiser of the Jaipur LitFest said, "We are having to step down in a fight for the freedom of expression...this is not a decision that we can support. We have been pushed to the wall." Before breaking down on stage, he explained that "We have been informed that people are inside the venue, sent to disrupt proceedings."
Mr Rushdie's participation via a satellite link from a London studio had been organized to compensate for his exit from the five-day literary event because of security concerns. But, a smattering of hardliners gathered at the venue, unwilling to tolerate Mr Rushdie's long-distance appearance.