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Congress asks Centre to review visa for Rushdie

The Congress today asked the central government to review its decision to grant a visa to controversial writer Salman Rushdie, author of controversial The Satanic Verses.

Even at this late stage, the government should have wider consultations on this issue, which has outraged the feelings of a large section of Muslims, Arjun Singh, chairman of the All-India Congress Committee's department of minority affairs, said in a statement.

The minorities in the country are greatly perturbed by many events taking place in the country and the "cavalier and irresponsible" attitude of the government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, he said.

The latest act is the grant of a visa to Rushdie, he said.

It would have been in the fitness of things if, before deciding to grant Rushdie a visa, the government had taken all sections of the people into confidence so that all controversies could have been avoided and the possibility of peace and tranquillity being disturbed would not have arisen, he said.

UNI

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