The demonstrators under the banner of Milli Council assembled outside the venue of the festival and demanded the cancellation of the video link.


The organizers of the festival reportedly met the protesters to solve the problem.

Rushdie is scheduled to join the festival at 3:45 pm via a video link.

Jaipur-based Milli Council is one of the organisations that had filed a complaint against writers who had read out from Rushdie's controversial book -'The Satanic Verses'.

Earlier on Tuesday, the organizers of the festival had reportedly said that the writer will not break any law with his video address at the JLF.


Without giving much details, JLF organisers, in a statement, said, "We have sent the police a letter. They have asked for clarifications which we are sending. We have not been told we can can't do this. As of now video link scheduled for 3:45 pm.”

“They (the police) have asked for clarifications on the format and timing. They have not asked for an affidavit. We will be sticking to the law of the land. We know the book is banned,” it added.

Earlier, Rushdie expressed his outraged over what appeared to him a "ploy" by the Rajasthan Police to keep him away from the JLF to quell protests by a few Muslim groups.

The Booker Prize winning writer had to cancel his planned visit to JLF on Friday after what he said the authorities warned him of possible bid on his life by hired assassins of Mumbai underworld.

But with the Mumbai police denying ever coming up with any such news, Rushdie sees the entire episode as a ploy to keep him away from the festival.

He was told that Mumbai underworld assassins were engaged to kill him, but the Mumbai Police later rubbished the news saying they had no such input ever.

An angry Rushdie on Sunday tweeted citing a news story in The Hindu: "‘Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie". I've investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry."

State authorities however dismissed Rushdie's charge that the state police had invented a "ploy" to keep him away from the Literature Festival, saying that it had received intelligence inputs that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was planning to target him during the festival.

"Salman Rushdie's allegation on Rajasthan police is completely baseless. The state government had received reactions and inputs from intelligence agencies, individuals and organisations in this regard," Principal Secretary (Home) G S Sandhu said in a statement.

Rushdie's decision to stay away from the festival triggered protests by the intellectuals in India who had gathered at the literary carnival in the historic city of Jaipur to take part in what is now Asia's biggest such festival.

They slammed the Indian authorities for failing to offer protection to the London-based writer who was in hiding for years earlier following the threats by the Islamic fundamentalists.

The scheduled visit of Rushdie was under cloud ever since an Indian Islamic seminary protested his invitation to the festival, though he had graced it in the past without a whimper of protest.