The Salman Rushdie Affair, Answers to Some Questions Plij!

The whole Salman Rushdie affair is nauseating. I am shocked how it has divided the literary community and how charges are being traded between the organisers of the Jaipur Literary Festival and the writers who are participating. 

I am not the one who takes sides in literary issues. But some questions arise in the mind - ignorant as I am - which need to be addressed:

• Why didn't the government decide to allow Rushdie to come and provide him with Z-category security?
• Is a live event the right forum to lodge your protest, that too, many years after the book was banned?
• Can the government explain why it banned "Satanic Verses"? Has any secretariat-walla read the book?
• What is the purpose of these literary festivals? Is it to generate some controversy?
• How does festivals help aspiring writers? Do they really get to meet literary agents and publishers?
• Is Jaipur Literary Festival worth the biting cold and huge crowds?

If you have any answers to the above questions, please go ahead and comment. Thanks!

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here.