Avoided autobiography to skip controversy: Ganguly

Kolkata - Taking a broad swipe at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the ruckus over author Salman Rushdie’s cancellation of his trip to Kolkata, ex Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly Saturday said he never wrote his autobiography as he wanted to avoid becoming the subject of a frontpage controversy.

Ganguly felt there was no point in writing if he could not write everything.

“Yeah. It’s over four years that I’ve left the big stage. I feel there is no point writing if you can’t write everything. May be, the autobiography will come at a later date, but I don’t know when,” he said during a session at the Kolkata Literary Meet to queries why he was yet to write an autobiography.

“An autobiography is about telling the truth to the world. Sometimes, you are forced not to write everything… Because I don’t want a frontpage photograph the next morning like it was of Salman Rushdie today. And he’s not being allowed to enter the book fair. I generally tend to keep away from it,” Ganguly said.

Rushdie has alleged that he was forced to cancel his Kolkata trip Wednesday because the West Bengal chief minister had ordered the police to block his arrival.

The 65-year-old writer was slated to visit Kolkata to promote Deepa Mehta’s film “Midnight’s Children”, based on his novel.

Rushdie was scheduled to hold a media meet about the film and attend an autograph session.

He had planned to visit Kolkata Book Fair – that started Jan 26 and continues till Feb 10 – and attend a session at the KLM on “Midnight’s Children” Wednesday evening.

Rushdie has for long been embroiled in controversy over his book “The Satanic Verses”, which has been perceived as anti-Islamic.

Following an appeal from the audience that he should become Bengal’s brand ambassador, Ganguly said: “Please make the request to didi (elder sister – as Banerjee is affectionately called), not me.”