Festival organisers talk of Rushdie with Muslim groups

A little breakthrough was achieved on the Salman Rushdie front with the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 and Muslim groups opposing the visit of the Booker winning author establishing a dialogue late on Wednesday.

The groups are scheduled to meet at a city hotel on Thursday to discuss the matter across the table.

“They are meeting tomorrow at Hotel Indana over a cup of coffee,” said M. Hasan, who played a major role in making Sanjoy Roy of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 and Saleem Engineer, national secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, talk on the phone.

“Dr. Saleem spoke to Mr. Roy on the phone when he was at the meeting of the representatives of some 20-25 Muslim organisations convened at the Muslim Mussafir Khana here to discuss the Rushdie issue,” said Prof. Hasan, talking to

The Hindu . “It was a rather virulent group but things took a turn for good towards the end of it,” he said.

While Dr. Saleem did not answer calls made on his mobile phone, Prof. Hasan expressed the hope that Thursday's meeting would help to find a solution to the impasse over Mr. Rushdie's visit to the festival. There has been a call from various Muslim organisations to the people to converge at the city's Jama Masjid on that day.