India’s Consul General in Saudi Arabia, Ausaf Sayeed, will be replaced. Some delegates at the annual Haj Conference in New Delhi early this month had alleged that Sayeed’s personal website carried an advertisement of Salman Rushdie’s books, including The Satanic Verses. Sayeed A Baba, private secretary to Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, will replace him. Baba, a 1988-batch West Bengal-cadre IAS officer, will take up the new post shortly. However, the MEA maintains that the replacement of Ausaf Sayeed has got nothing to do with the Salman Rushdie controversy. “The replacement had been in the pipeline for quite sometime,” said a ministry official. The delegates had raised the issue in the presence of Minister of External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, and MoS E Ahmed. Following that, the ministry had sought a clarification from Sayeed who denied the allegation. He said that he had no knowledge about the advertisement or had any association with the controversial author. He explained that it was a ploy to sabotage the annual Haj Conference. The ministry was convinced by his clarification. “We have ascertained the facts and he said the website was on a free server and that he had no control over it. It seems to be a politically motivated allegation,” an official had told The Indian Express. But the issue refused to settle down with various Muslim organisations taking up the case. Some organisations, including the Islamic Council of India, had even written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking Sayeed’s immediate dismissal.
