Penguin India refused to publish Satanic Verses, says Congress

Two days after former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the decision to ban Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses by the Congress government in 1988 was “wrong,” senior Congress leader P.L. Punia on Monday blamed the publisher Penguin for deciding “not to print [the book] in India.”

“The import of that book was banned, not the book itself was banned,” Mr. Punia told reporters here.

He said the then consulting editor of Penguin India, Khushwant Singh, was privy to the fact that the publishing house decided not to print the book in India.

Mr. Punia said that instead of speaking up now, Mr. Chidambaram should have spoken back in 1988 when the Congress government blocked the marketing of Mr. Rushdie’s book. “No question of casting aspersion on the decision taken by the then government and Chidambaramji is a very senior leader and he was part of the government then,” Mr. Punia said.