Kolkata Book Fair Official lies about Salman Rushdie invitation

Guild denies role in Rushdie ban, takes a dig at media

TNN | Feb 5, 2013, 06.57 AM IST

Salman Rushdie Air Ticket (source The Telegraph Feb 04 2013 Kolkata)

KOLKATA: Even after the supposed air tickets of Salman Rushdie that were routed through an email account attributed to Gameplan - the organizers of Kolkata Literary Meet (KLM) - was flashed by sections of the media on Monday, the Publishers and Booksellers Guild maintained that it had no hand in the author's last minute cancellation of his trip to the city.

They claimed that neither they nor Gameplan sent out any invitation or air tickets to Rushdie. However, the guild secretary Tridib Kumar Chatterjee tried to make light the situation.

"You can continue investigating the reason why Rushdie wanted to come here and why he cancelled his trip. We will only say that not everything in life can be explained, similar to the Bermuda Triangle mystery,'' he said, adding to the controversy.

Addressing a press conference at the Milan Mela, both Chatterjee and president Sudhangshu Dey asked the press to "let go of the Rushdie controversy'' as the literary meet was over on Sunday.

"We do not accept an air ticket as a credible proof that we had invited him to the fest. You can check with every author who attended the meet on our invitation that they had received a request letter on our behalf. Unless we see such an invitation forwarded by us to Rushdie, we cannot accept that we had invited him,'' said Chatterjee.

He also told reporters to directly ask state minister Sultan Ahmed whether the guild had invited Rushdie and if the state administration had stepped in to stop the visit.

When asked why the guild chose to write to the police that they had not invited Rushdie instead of a verbal communication, the guild heads once again blamed the media for the development. We will not tell you how we informed the cops. However, it had become an imperative to inform them the reality after a section of media reported that we had invited him over,'' said Chatterjee.

The guild also remained non-committal on whether the writer will be invited to the lit fest in future.

"Let the future be decided based on ground realities. We cannot comment on the future right now. But since the state government assists us in the fair, they will be taken into confidence whenever we decide to invite Rushdie to the fest,'' said Dey.

Refusing to budge from their initial stance - even after sections of the media flashed the supposed air tickets of Salman Rushdie for Kolkata before them - the Publishers and Book Sellers Guild maintained that they had no role to play in the last minute cancellation of plans by the author of the Satanic Verses to visit the city. The organizers claimed on Monday that neither they, nor the event organizers of the Kolkata Literary Fest - Game Plan, sent out any invitation or air ticket to Rushdie.

Curiously, the secretary of the Guild Tridib Kumar Chatterjee maintained that the author's cancellation of the trip was comparable to the mystery surrounding the Bermuda triangle. You can continue investigating the reason why Rushdie wanted to come here and why he cancelled his trip. We will only say that not everything in life can be explained, similar to the Bermuda Triangle mystery,'' said Chatterjee. His statements, though made in a lighter vein, might only add to the controversy.

Addressing a press conference at the Milan Mela Book Fair grounds, both Chatterjee and president Sudhangshu Dey asked the press to let go of the Rushdie controversy'' as the Literary fest was over on Sunday. We do not accept an air ticket as a credible proof that we had invited him to the fest. You can check from every author who attended the meet on our invitation that they have received a request letter on our behalf. Unless we see such an invitation forwarded by us to Rushdie, we cannot accept that we had invited him,'' said Chatterjee. In fact, Chatterjee went to the extent of asking reporters to ask state minister Sultan Ahmed themselves on his statement that the guild had invited them and the state administration had stepped in to stop the visit.

When asked why the guild chose to tell the cops through a written communication that they had not invited Rushdie instead of a verbal communication, the guild heads once again blamed the media for the development. We will not tell you how we informed the cops. However, it had become an imperative to inform them the reality after a section of media reported that we had invited him over,'' said Chatterjee.

The guild remained non-committal on whether the writer will be invited to the Kolkata lit fest in the future. Let the future be decided based on ground realities. We cannot comment on the future right now. But since the state government assists us with the fair, they will be taken in to confidence whenever we decide to invite Rushdie to the fest,'' said Dey.

A section of the media on Monday had claimed that Salman Rushdie was supposed to attend the Kolkata Literary Meet (KLM) at 7.45pm on January 30 and his plane tickets were routed through an email account attributed to Gameplan.

Sources in the Calcutta-based Gameplan, the organisers of the lit meet though maintained - just like guild - that Rushdie was never "invited" to KLM. Rushdie was eventually shut out of the city, for which the author held chief minister Mamata Banerjee responsible by tweeting that she ordered police to block his arrival that led to an eventual backlash among intellectuals across the country.

The media had also claimed that the correspondece'' between both sides confirm that the itinerary and the visit itself were yanked off the charted route on January 29 - a day before Rushdie's proposed trip to Calcutta - after the police formed an "impression".