Jaipur Literature Festival hit by speakers’ absence

Jaipur: The uncharacteristically quiet Jaipur Literature Festival this year has been hit by unforeseen events resulting in a couple of key figures, who have regular in all earlier editions of the event, giving it a miss.

After Union minister Shashi Tharoor, who had to skip the event following mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, two other distinguished guests — lyricist Javed Akhtar and TV journalist Barkha Dutt — also did not attend the festival. Both had a couple of sessions lined up for Sunday.

Akhtar was scheduled to participate in a session titled Urdu Mein Hindustan in conversation with poet Ashok Vajpayi and the session was taken over by lyricist Prasoon Joshi and singer Vidya Shah.

Organisers did not confirm whether Akhtar would participate in Monday’s session Khalnayak in conversation with Kishwar Desai.

During the last year’s edition, a quarrel over religion broke out between Akhtar and Dalit activist Kancha Illaiah. Akhtar is believed to have cancelled the visit due to ill health.

Dutt, slated to take part in a session titled Dispensable Nation: Afghanistan after the US withdrawal did not attend it, while Vali Nasr, dean of John’s Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, had to fly back after death of a relative.