London Diary: Rushdie’s latest work, the Booker Prize shortlisted ‘Quichotte’, too revolves around India

Salman Rushdie has spent more of his lifetime in the West than in the country of his birth but remains unapologetically Indian, both emotionally and culturally. Like all his previous novels, his latest —the Booker Prize shortlisted Quichotte — is a paean to India, particularly Bombay, as it was known in the good old days before the idea of a “new” majoritarian India was cooked up.

No wonder, he’s deeply concerned about the turn his native land has taken — as indeed have his two adopted countries, Britain and America.

“Three countries I’ve written & cared about — India, UK, US— are in similar upheaval,” Rushdie told Channel 4. And in his novel, he writes: “The thuggish deterioration of Indian society...hurt her more deeply than she cared to admit.”

His nostalgia for old India and its main architect came through in an interview to the New Statesman. Asked to name one world leader, he looks up to, Rushdie replied: “I will say someone who is currently very out of fashion in India. Jawaharlal Nehru. For me, he is an enormously formative and influential figure. Now official sources in India constantly deride him.”

And what “single thing” would make his life better: “Rewriting history to erase Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Narendra Modi.”

Go for it, Sir Salman ?

Beebs does it again

The BBC is everyone’s favourite whipping boy — accused by the Right of being too liberal, and by liberals of being full of closet Tories. Even its own staff are forever complaining: women about sexism; working class about its elitist bias; ethnic minorities about racial prejudice; 50s-plus about ageism...

Hardly a day pass without headlines about BBC getting “embroiled in a row”. And as I write this, it’s reeling from embarrassment after being forced to eat humble pie over its decision to censure its Indian-Mauritian origin presenter Naga Munchetty for commenting on Donald Trump’s remarks telling four Democratic congresswomen of colour, all US citizens, to “go home”.

Its decision on the basis of a single complaint from a viewer while ignoring a similar complaint against her white co-presenter sparked a huge backlash. Scores of prominent black British media figures backed by more than 100 MPs and the BBC’s own journalists launched a public protest accusing it of singling out Munchetty because of her colour.

In the letter to Lord Anthony Hall, organised by Labour’s Seema Malhotra, the MPs warned that the move could further fuel the prevailing climate of hate. Initially, BBC claimed its decision had been “wilfully misunderstood”. But as pressure grew, it announced a U-turn and revoked the decision it had so self-righteously defended inviting more ridicule and embarrassment.

Typical BBC.

Gender myths

No, men don’t necessarily have a shorter life span than women; and, no, women are not less vulnerable to heart attacks than men as is generally believed. One of the biggest myths of our age —namely that women live longer than men because they are less likely to suffer from heart problems—has been finally busted.

Latest official figures in Britain show that last year the number of men who lived up to 90 or beyond rose significantly while comparative figures for women declined. Though longevity across genders went up, the advance among men “far outstripped” that among women, The Times reported.

An unfortunate result of the belief that heart attacks only happen to men has been that women are diagnosed late and don’t get timely treatment resulting in avoidable deaths, according to research by British Heart Foundation.

“The assumption that women are not at risk of heart attack has proven to be deadly,” it said calling for changing the public perception of women and heart attacks.

Got it? No, Prime Minister

Swear words, sexist language, bullying... British MPs and ministers have not been on their best behaviour in recent weeks, to put it mildly, as tempers over Brexit have frayed ahead of the October 31 deadline to leave the European Union.

And arguably the worst- behaved has been none other than Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself, prompting accusations of “inciting” violence (a la Trump) against critics of his Brexit strategy. His own sister Rachel Johnson couldn’t help criticising his aggressive and confrontational language. But he has refused to apologise invoking free speech.

And not for the first time, his personal character is in the headlines after a senior woman journalist Charlotte Edwardes alleged that Johnson groped her at a private lunch when he was editor of The Spectator 20 years ago.

Intriguingly, he said he had “no memory whatsoever” of that lunch while at the same time denying the allegation. It feeds into his reputation as a “philanderer” and the view that he has a serious “woman problem”.

Polls regularly show that he is widely distrusted by women voters. His own colleague and former Cabinet colleague Amber Rudd famously said about him: “You can’t trust him to take you home at the end of an evening.”

And she wasn’t joking.

Lastly, apparently, BBC has an informal hair code for its female TV news presenters which recommends only “shoulder-length styles”. Also frowned upon are patterned clothes, jewellery, leather and mock-leather, fur, jeans, chinos, shorts, and elaborate make-up.