88 Rushdie book ban wrong: P Chidambaram

Twenty-seven years after the then Rajiv Gandhi government banned Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said it was “wrong”.

Mr Chidambaram, who was a minister of state for home affairs under Rajiv Gandhi from 1986-89, also said Indira Gandhi had in 1980 admitted imposing Emergency was a mistake.

“I have no hesitation in saying that the ban on Salman Rushdie’s book was wrong,” Mr Chidambaram, who was MoS for home when the ban was imposed in October 1988, said at an event here.

“If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing,” he said when asked why it took him so many years to reach such a conclusion.

Asked if the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi was also wrong, he said, “Indira Gandhi herself admitted in 1980 that the Emergency was wrong. People believed her and elected her to power again.” Speaking about alleged rising intolerance in the country, Mr Chidambaram said, “It is on the rise”.