Noted author Amitav Ghosh said he was glad that former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, who was minister of state for home affairs in the Rajiv Gandhi government when it had banned Salman Rushdie’s book, The Satanic Verses, in October 1988, accepted that it had been the wrong decision. Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said he agreed with Mr Chidam-baram entirely. “These kinds of books are literary pieces and, in my view, there is no occasion to ban such books,” he said. There were voices of support within the Congress as party leader Manish Tewari said Mr Chidambaram was absolutely correct and that the time had come for India to move beyond proscribing books and other creative material. “We need to create a tolerant ethos in this country,” he said.