Indian police examined television footage on Saturday pending any formal investigation after Salman Rushdie’s banned novel “The Satanic Verses” was read out at a literary festival. Rushdie was forced to withdraw from appearing at the Jaipur Literature Festival due to security fears when some Muslim groups threatened to demonstrate at the event over the allegedly blasphemous book. Fellow authors at the festival expressed their opposition to the campaign against Indian-born Rushdie, and on Friday writers Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar read out passages of “The Satanic Verses” from the stage in protest.
“We are examining the footage,” deputy inspector general of Jaipur police Biju George Joseph told AFP. “The authors have been told to stick to their topics and not enter any controversy.”
“It was only some sentences taken from the book, they did not have a copy of the book itself,” he added. Muslim activists said they would register their claims with the police that the reading was illegal.
“We will discuss the matter with our people and after that we will lodge a formal complaint with police,” Engineer Salim, who represents the Rajasthan Muslim Forum, a Jaipur-based umbrella organisation, told AFP.
“It is an offence. Action must be taken against those who did it,” he said.
