Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Infosys founder Narayan Murthy attended the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) 2025, a five-day literary extravaganza held from January 30 to February 3 at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur. The festival, now in its 18th edition, has drawn thousands of literature enthusiasts, authors, and cultural figures from around the world. Sunak and his father-in-law Murthy attended a special session titled “My Mother, Myself”, featuring Akshata Murthy, Rishi Sunak’s wife, and her mother, renowned author and philanthropist Sudha Murty. The session explored themes of family, heritage, and personal identity.
Sunak, who lost the UK general elections in 2024, is currently a Member of Parliament for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire. He has also taken on academic roles at Oxford University in the UK and Stanford University in the US, both of which are his alma maters.
Jaipur Literature Fest is among the most popular Literature festivals in India where dialogues related to culture, religion, History, craft, literature gets featured. However, its controversial past and biases against the nationalistic discourse repels major sections of the Indian Society. It is often argued that Jaipur Literature festivals at most provide a platform to Islamo-leftist scholars while neglecting others. Jaipur Literature festivals works in the same modus operandi, the Pre 2014 India worked with, that is to curtail the voices of the scholars who narrate the facts in contrast to the Marxist school of thought.
One of the co-founders of the Jaipur Literary Fest is William Dalrymple, as a result, it is not shocking to understand or predict its modus operandi. He has been the favourite Historian among the Islamo-Leftist Circles. Not only for presenting a whitewashed version of History, William Dalrymple has found himself in the middle of the controversies for several other reasons too that must be looked at.
The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in 2021 received backlash after its Festival Director, William Dalrymple, invited Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai despite her history of making anti-India statements. Malala, known for advocating education, used her platform at JLF 2021 to claim that Muslims and Dalits in India face discrimination. The statement made by Malala holds no mole of truth. This was not the first time she tried to tarnish the reputation of India by peddling fake news. She has previously peddled false narratives on Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, alleging a communication blackout and suppression of voices, despite factual inaccuracies.
William Dalrymple had also attempted to de-platform the book Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story, which exposed the anti-Hindu nature of the riots. He actively worked to stop its publication by urging Bloomsbury and other authors to intervene. However, the book was later published by Garuda Prakashan, overcoming the liberal censorship attempt. The incident highlights the biases with which Jaipur Literary fest comes where cynics of the establishment and Hindu community are amplified while opposing narratives are suppressed.
The JLF has increasingly become a platform for ideological grandstanding and selective narratives. Journalist Ravish Kumar, a known Modi-baiter, was given the platform with no other journalist from the other side of the discourse being called. Rather than fostering meaningful debate, JLF has become a stage for curated propaganda, where left-leaning intellectuals reinforce each other’s biases while dissenting voices are ignored or suppressed.
Back in 2022, The JLF removed veteran journalist and former BJP Minister MJ Akbar as a speaker due to unproven #MeToo allegations against him from 2018. Social media outrage, led by journalist Peter Griffin, pressured JLF organizers to de-platform Akbar, with many ‘liberal’ voices accusing the festival of legitimizing alleged sexual offenders. However, the same outrage was absent for JLF co-director William Dalrymple, who has also faced multiple #MeToo allegations. Women have accused him of inappropriate behavior, including unsolicited messages and dinner invitations that made them uncomfortable. Despite these accusations, William Dalrymple continues to hold his position at JLF, highlighting an apparent double standard in the liberal outrage.
Interestingly, William Dalrymple has no hesitation to invite Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui, a person accused of rape in his Jaipur Literature Fest. The selective outrage raises questions about ideological bias and cancel culture which the reddish-Green circles poses, where the figures linked to other political ideologies are not allowed to use their freedom of speech and are deplatformed as well as cancelled. Shazia Ilmi of BJP too had to face the New York Edition of Jaipur Literature Festival simply for her holding a different point of view and for being part of a political party who does not cater to the ideology of the leftist circles.
