Mostly Samajwadi Party workers, protestors aled by the party’s Mumbai unit chief Farooq Ghoshi, chanted slogans and displayed banners against the author at the main gate of the airport.

They demanded that Rushdie not be allowed to enter the city as his allegedly blasphemous writings in The Satanic Verses led to protests in 1989 where 12 youths lost their lives in police firing.

Rushdie was in Mumbai earlier in the month on an invitation by socialite Parmeshwar Godrej to participate in an AIDS awareness initiative. Then too Samajwadi Party workers staged a protest in the Juhu area demanding that Rushdie be asked to leave the city.

Ghoshi said, “I told all the boys to be present at the airport gate as we read in newspapers that Rushdie was going to visit the city again. We did not know when he came in last, and it was too late by the time we had protested then. This time we wanted to stop him, right at the gate. We have also called in the people who were at the Haj camp set up at the airport to join us in the protest.”

Ghoshi added that they wanted to prove Rushdie wrong by not letting him enter the city.

Passengers were inconvenienced when the protestors thronged the main gate immediately after the flight in which he was expected landed. However, the author did not turn up.

Ghoshi said, “We even tried to check with airlines and airport officials about his arrival. But they kept telling us that the passenger details are not discussed. We wanted the State government or the police to tell us about his arrival. If we had known that he was not going to make an appearance, we would not have inconvenienced anyone.”

The police ensured that the protest did not spill inside the airport premises.