Rejecting Salman Rushdie's charge that it had concocted the story about a plot to eliminate him to keep him away from India, the Rajasthan government on Sunday said the information was provided by the Intelligence Bureau.
"It was the input of the Intelligence Bureau on the basis of which the organisers advised Rushdie not to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival. The state government did not speak or asked Rushdie to come to Jaipur," a senior Rajasthan government official said on condition of anonymity.
"It was brought to our knowledge that Rushdie through Twitter had said that the Rajasthan police tried to keep him away from the festival. It is absolutely wrong," he said.
In the wake of controversy over Rushdie's visit and protest reading of the banned Satanic Verses at the literary festival in Jaipur, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had on Saturday assured that no disturbances will be allowed and adequate security arrangements have been made.
"The government has made proper security arrangements and the government will look into any other aspect related to the security," he told reporters after attending a training camp of district and block level committees in Jaipur.
"Nobody would want to cause disturbance at such an event," he said adding that Rushdie was free to come to India. Announcing his cancellation in a message on the first day of the literary event that kicked off on Friday, the
Booker Prize winning author had said he had been told by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that "paid assassins" from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to "eliminate" him.
Rushdie claimed that this input prompted him to scrap his planned visit to the country.
The author on Sunday tweeted, "The Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie' I've investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry."
