Accusing Congress-led government at the Centre of "appeasing" religious fundamentalists by "censoring" writer Salman Rushdie's video address to Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), the Opposition BJP on Tuesday termed the move as surrender before fundamentalist forces.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, accused Central Government of pushing country to pre-censorship era by preventing Rushdie from addressing the audience at JLF through video conference. Jaitley was in city to release party manifesto ahead of Punjab Assembly election due on January 30.

Referring to the false reports about security threat against Rushdie, Jaitley alleged that Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan Government in connivance with Central Government concocted the Intelligence report and misled public over the writer's visit.

Asserting that Central Government's bowing before the religious fundamentalists will not be accepted, Jaitley said "Earlier, in Shah Bano case Congress government bowed before the fundamentalists and paid the price. Now, again this government is bowing before them, which is shameful."

He said, "When any government bows to the demands of fundamentalists and hardliners, it sends out a bad message for the government and the political administration."