Satanic Verses hurt Muslim sensibilities: Katju

January 30, 2012 16:17

Attacking Salman Rushdie, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju today said the "sensationalism" depicted by his book Satanic Verses has deeply hurt Muslim sensitivities and that an individual's freedom of speech has to harmonise with the public interest.

Justice Katju, who had last week termed Rushdie as a "sub-standard and poor writer", also questioned the Booker Prize awarded to the author saying it was a "mystery" why he got it.

"Some people describe Rushdie as a great writer because he has won the Booker Prize. In this connection, I wish to say that literature prizes are often a mystery. Out of the approximately 100 Nobel Prizes given for literature till today, nobody even remembers the names of 80 or more winners," he said in a statement.

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