Digital Desk: Natwar Singh, a former minister and ambassador, claimed on Saturday that he participated in the decision to forbid The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in India in 1988. He had advised banning the book because it might disrupt law and order to Rajiv Gandhi, who was prime minister at the time. Natwar Singh said the controversial British-American author had been stabbed in New York at an open event by a 24-year-old guy, thus the decision made solely for law and order concerns was appropriate.
Natwar Singh expressed his anguish over the attack while the attack on the writer in the US unnerved world leaders and artists. He remarked, "Here is a 75-year-old man who isn't hurting anyone and is making literary contributions, and then some scoundrel comes along and almost kills him, and that too while he was giving a speech in New York.
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