Rushdie affair: Wimpish government fails to stop bigots

The gagging of Salman Rushdie at a recent writers’ festival has disgraced the country, writes

AMULYA GANGULI

There was much less of a furore when The Satanic Verses was banned in 1988. Some major newspapers even approved of the ban. The probable reason for endorsing what would now be considered a retrogressive step, was that the country was in an uncertain frame of mind at the time. A popular prime minister had been assassinated following the army’s storming of the sacred shrine of a minority group, while another minority group was restive over a judicial verdict on an issue of its personal law.

Two decades later, India is a different country. It has come to terms with Indira Gandhi’s tragic death in 1984; the Khalistani upsurge in protest against the killing of a rebel Sikh and his followers has petered out, and the Supreme Court’s judgment on the alimony for a divorced Muslim woman is now no more than a chapter of history.

There have been other changes as well. There has been a veritable explosion on the media front with the emergence of hundreds of television channels and scores of newspapers in English and regional languages. The rise of the market is linked to the growth of the middle class, now approaching 300 million, and its consequent assertiveness, aided and abetted by the ubiquitous 24x7 news channels, endlessly engaged in “breaking news”.