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Mamata told police to put me on the next flight: Rushdie
Controversial author Salman Rushdie has said that he was forced to cancel his trip to Kolkata as he was told that the police would bundle him out in the next flight on instructions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"The simple fact is that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the police to block my arrival," tweeted the British Indian novelist who was forced to cancel his trip to the metropolis on Wednesday to promote Deepa Mehta's film Midnight's Children based on his novel.
"I did not get "friendly advice" to stay away from Kolkata. I was told the police would put me on next plane out. The police gave my full itinerary to the press and called Muslim leaders, clearly inciting protests," he claimed on the micro-blogging site.
The 65-year-old author issued a one page statement before flying out of the country.
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Mamata told police to put me on the next flight: Rushdie
Rushdie also tweeted that the Kolkata Police had made his visit to the city "impossible" and accused it of leaking his programme to the press and Muslim leaders "clearly inciting protests".
"... The day before I was due to travel to Kolkata we were informed that the Kolkata police would refuse to allow me to enter the city. If I flew there, I was told, I would be put on the next plane back. I was also told that this was at the request of the chief minister," Rushdie said in the statement.
The Booker Prize winning author also lashed out at the organisers of the ongoing Kolkata Literary Meet who had claimed that Rushdie was never invited by them.
"Let me be clear. I was indeed planning to take part in a session at the Kolkata Lit Meet along with the scheduled speakers Deepa Mehta, Rahul Bose, and Ruchir Joshi. The organizers were fully aware of this, and had asked me to appear as a "surprise guest". If they now deny this, that is dishonest. They actually paid for my plane ticket," Rushdie further said.
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Mamata told police to put me on the next flight: Rushdie
During a session of KLM titled Midnight Magic, Deepa Mehta, her producer husband David Hamilton and actor Rahul Bose were to discuss the challenge of transferring the Midnight's Children from page to reel.
Rushdie, who has not only written the screenplay but has also rendered a voice over in the film, was to be a 'surprise guest' at the KLM, Mehta had said.
Only Bose could make it to the Midnight Magic session while Mehta and Hamilton stayed back in Mumbai along with Rushdie.
Rushdie travelled to Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai without problem before he was to come to Kolkata promote the film, which stars Rahul Bose, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Anupam Kher, Soha Ali Khan and Sarita Choudhury.
Recalling the fiasco over his trip to Jaipur literature festival last year, Rushdie said, "I remember that after the Jaipur festival last year Mamata Banerjee had said she would not allow me to enter Kolkata. It would appear that she has made good that threat."
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Mamata told police to put me on the next flight: Rushdie
Rushdie called the recent controversies surrounding the release of Kamal Haasan's film Vishwaroopam and the problems faced by author Ashish Nandy's for his alleged anti-Dalit statements, "assaults upon the artistic and intellectual freedoms".
"What is happening in India nowadays is an accumulating scandal and a growing disgrace to this great nation.
"The assaults upon the artistic and intellectual freedoms of, for example, Maqbool Fida Hussain, Rohinton Mistry, AK Ramanujan, James Laine, Deepa Mehta, Ashis Nandy, Kamal Haasan and others add up to what I have called a cultural Emergency and what Haasan has called cultural terrorism," said Rushdie.
The author said that being a "proud" overseas citizen of India, it was a shame that he was not allowed to move freely within the country to which any Indian is entitled by right.
He hoped to return to India "as soon as good sense prevails."
Midnight's Children opened in Indian theatres on Friday.