The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned the recent attack on author Salman Rushdie in New York.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the organisation said the Indian-born author has stood throughout his life for the right to artistic expression, to speak truth to power, and to offend, shock and disturb. Quoting the author, the statement said “nobody has the right to not be offended.”
Pointing out the threats Mr. Rushdie has been facing for more than three decades since the publication of his book The Satanic Verses, PUCL expressed concern over the lack of adequate security at the event in New York, during which he was attacked.
It highlighted that PUCL had condemned the ban on the book by the Indian government in 1988 and demanded the then Rajiv Gandhi-led government to withdraw the ban.
Mr. Rushdie, it said, has been a critic of orthodoxies and fundamentalisms of all stripes and hues while strongly defending heterogeneity and diversity. Any kind of social change is premised on the right to free speech and opinion, which encompassed in itself the right to dissent, criticise, and express freely without fear or intimidation, it added.
It stressed on the need for the global human rights movements to apply pressure on the UN system and national governments to implement the fundamental freedoms promised under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It said that efforts should also be made to demand the withdrawal of the fatwa issued against him.
