Literary heavyweights at the Jaipur Lit Festival

This year, the popular annual Literature Festival at Jaipur will begin with keynote address by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and has lined up over 200 authors for a five day period of debates and discussions.
The literary event in its previous editions had been at the centre of controversy with Salman Rushdie being compelled to cancel his visit, opposition of some right wing groups to participation by Pakistani authors as well as a raging row last year over comments by sociologist Ashis Nandy.
Organisers of the free-entry festival scheduled to begin on January 17 this year at its usual venue, the Diggi Palace say they are not worried about any "controversies".

"I don't see controversies as anything negative. In fact, sometimes they throw open magnifying debates in the society and whenever there will be a bigger platforms with sensitive ideas being discussed, controversies are obvious to erupt," Festival Director, Namita Gokhale told PTI.
"Ideas are dangerous thinks to deal with, but we in a democratic country are free to share them. So, we aren't apprehensive or worried about any controversies arising at the festival," she said.
While Salman Rushdie's planned visit - that ultimately did not materialise hogged the limelight at the festival in 2011, sociologist Ashis Nandy created a furore over his comments on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs in the 2012 edition.

Last year, some groups were also against the inclusion of author Jeet Thayil who had read from Salman Rushdie's banned book "Satanic Verses" in the festival's previous edition.
It also faced protests from right wing groups over invitation to writers from Pakistan after the killing of two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control.