Salman Rushdie on Chidambaram remark: How many years to correct ban on Satanic Verses?
Rushdie's remarks came hours after Chidambaram admitted that the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to ban the controversial novel was a mistake.
Salman Rushdie today reacted to former finance minister P Chidambaram's statement about the ban on his controversial novel "Satanic Verses" being wrong by asking how long would it take to correct the mistake.
Rushdie's remarks came hours after Chidambaram admitted that the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to ban the book was a mistake.
Chidambaram, who was Minister of State Home Affairs when the ban was imposed in October 1988, had said at the Times LitFest on Saturday that he had "no hesitation in saying that the ban on Salman Rushdie's book was wrong".
Rushdie took to Twitter to say, "This admission just took 27 years. How many before the 'mistake' is corrected?"
The publication of the "Satanic Verses" in 1988 was followed by a fatwa by Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Khomenini calling for Rushdie to be killed, forcing the author to go into hiding.
Earlier in 2012, the author had to pull out from the Jaipur Literature Festival citing threats by some Muslim groups and had to even cancel a subsequent video address in the same festival.
Chidambaram also said Indira Gandhi had in 1980 admitted imposing Emergency was a mistake.
"I have no hesitation in saying that the ban on Salman Rushdie's book was wrong," Chidambaram, who was MoS Home Affairs when the ban was imposed in October 1988, said.
"If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing," he said when asked why it took him so many years to reach such a conclusion.
Asked if the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi was also wrong, the senior Congress leader said, "Indira Gandhi herself admitted in 1980 that the Emergency was wrong and, if elected to power, she would never impose the Emergency. People believed her and elected her to power again."
Speaking about alleged rising intolerance in the country, he said," It is on the rise" and expressed hope that "this moral majoritarianism" will fail comprehensively.