'Reading Rushdie's own words a necessary act of defiance'

Disappointed at Salman Rushdie not attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, Pulitzer prize-winning author David Remnick has said the "persecution" meted out to the India-born writer is an "outrage" against free expression.

In an article in the New Yorker, Remnick, the editor of the magazine, said while the Jaipur Literature Festival would have to go on without Rushdie, readers of the 'Midnight's

Children' author will get the "whole story" when his memoir is out later this year.

Rushdie cancelled his trip to the festival citing threats to his life.

Other authors participating in the festival expressed outrage over Rushdie being forced to back out of the literary event and in support, authors Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar read passages from the banned novel 'The Satanic Verses'.

"Reading Rushdie's own words seemed like a very necessary act of defiance to me and almost everyone else at the festival. The persecution of Salman Rushdie remains an outrage against free expression," Remnick said.

The New Yorker editor is India for the festival, and discussed his biography of US President Barack Obama titled The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama at the event.

Remnick said it will be a while before Rushdie's story reaches his fans through his memoir and "For today, we'll have to be satisfied with his collected works so far, and a few selections from his twitter feed."

Rushdie's memoir is expected to focus on his time in hiding after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa against him in 1989 for his work The Satanic Verses, which is deemed as being blasphemous to Islam.