Tharoor calls Salman Rushdie 'greatest living Indian writer', says Nobel long overdue

New Delhi: In effusive praise for Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, politician and author Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday asserted that the "overdue" Nobel Prize should not be withheld any longer from the "greatest living Indian writer".

Tharoor recently finished the Mumbai-born author's latest novel, "Victory City", which is based around the medieval city of Hampi, the ruined site in Karnataka of the Vijayanagara Empire.

"I've just finished Salman Rushdie's magnificent & magical "Victory City" a fabulous recreation of the history of the Vijaynagar Empire through his magical-realist lens, brilliantly written as always, full of the verve and brio of a writer at the height of his powers," Tharoor tweeted.

Styled as a translation of an ancient epic, the novel is a tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries.

Quoting the book's last sentence "Words are the only victors", the 67-year-old Congress leader, who is a bestselling author himself, said the "wielder of these words is a victor too, and 'Victory City' is a triumph".

He further urged that it is about time that the "greatest living Indian writer" gets the prestigious Nobel Prize.

"That overdue Nobel must not be withheld any longer to the greatest living Indian writer," he added.

The novelist, who faced death threats for years after writing "The Satanic Verses", was stabbed by a 24-year-old man on August 12 last year, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

Rushdie received the coveted Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children". The novel also won the Booker of Bookers and the Best of the Booker in 1993 and 2008, respectively.