Salman Rushdie was a winner of the Booker Prize.
 In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 to 2023
Meanwhile, Indian authors Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar abruptly left the festival, and Jaipur, after reading excerpts from Rushdie's banned novel at the festival

