Politics of Vote bank!

It's long since in 1988 Salman Rushdi wrote his book Satanic Verses that drew ire from Muslim fundamentalists.Ayatolla Khomani, the all-powerful leader of Iran clamped death penalty on Rushdi.By then much water has flown down the Ganges. Khomini is no more,passion for penal measures against Rushdi has subsided among the Muslims.Rushdi is now a free man .He can move freely and probably fearlessly.In fact, he did it in India this time.He has recently visited Chennai, Mumbai(his birth place), Bangalore with out amy furore or raised eye brows.It's most unfortunate he was denied entry in Kolkata,deemed one of the most progressive cultural cities of the country, to attend a literary meet for security reasons reportedly at the instance of our Chief minister as claimed by Rushdie himself.Initially it was claimed Rushdi was not at all invited to visit Kolkata and he was even called a liar most discourteously by the president of Book Sellers' Guild.But it later came out he was really asked to meet Literary Meet as tweeted by Rushdi.What was the harm if he did come to our City even uninvited?Definitely a litterateur of his stature could have accorded added grace to the literary meet or Kolkata BOOk Fare.But we missed this golden opportunity perhaps for political reasons.Mamata Banerjee thought Rushdi's visit would affect her minority vote bank and administration swung into action to foil Rushdi's visit to the City.How long would we sacrifice everything to the politics of vote bank?