Taslima asked to stay in Delhi - or leave India
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Bengali intellectuals who recently took part in a huge march here to denounce the recapture of Nandigram have floated a platform for a set of demands including immediate return of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen to Kolkata, and no further pressure on farmers ofNandigram for industry.
Meanwhile,this time it is not the Marxists but the UPA government that has decided that controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen cannot return to her adopted city of Kolkata.
Moreover, Nasreen has been told that if she wants to live in Delhi, she will not be allowed to take part in any public functions.
Speaking exclusively to NDTV's Managing Editor Barkha Dutt, Taslima Nasreen said that the decision had been communicated officially to her by a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Nasreen also claimed that her security was cited as the reason for the Centre's decision.
The controversial author, who has already withdrawn parts of her writing considered offensive to certain Muslim groups, has been in hiding for the past month.
Breaking down on the telephone, she claimed that she was being made to live under house arrest.
''I appeal to the government to change its mind,'' she said.
Nasreen also asserted that she will leave India if she is refrained from returning to Kolkata.
The author has been in a government safe house since November and has courted trouble over her perceived anti-Islamic writings.
Meanwhile, the CPM, which had sent Taslima off to Jaipur last month, washed its hands of her, saying that this was between Taslima and the government.
''It is between Taslima and the Central government and we have nothing to do with this,'' said Shyamal Chakravarthy, Leader, CPM.
"Enough injustice has been done to Taslima by the state government. Now both the State and Central governments should see to it that the writer can return and live in Kolkata with honour and dignity," theatre actress-director, Shaonli Mitra, the spokesperson of the platform 'Swajan' told PTI.
"We need to know where she is. She might have been under pressure to withdraw three pages of her book 'Dwikhandito'. I do not hold it as her defeat," said eminent thespian Bibhas Chakrabarty, also a member of 'Swajan'.
The uncertainty over Taslima must end immediately, said another theatre personality, Arpita Ghosh.
Referring to Nandigram, Mitra said that pressure on farmers for setting up industry in the area might be mounted again once the CRPF was withdrawn from there. "The administration knows very well the hurdles of Nayachar, the alternative site for the propsed chemical hub.
"Under the circumstances, we want to convey the message to the people of Nandigram that 'Swajan' is with them. We are regularly keeping contact with the local people. No decision can be be allowed to be imposed on them. Consent cannot be engineered," she said.
For Singur, all eyes were on the Calcutta High Court verdict due this month, Mitra said.
Taslima asked to stay in Delhi - or leave India
New Delhi: Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, living at an undisclosed address in New Delhi under state protection, is understood to have been told by Indian officials that she could either continue to stay here or leave the country, highly placed sources said.
The 45-year-old writer, who has been virtually on the run since November when she was forced to leave Kolkata following violent protests by radical Muslims demanding her ouster from India, was told of this decision Thursday.
"The West Bengal government has refused to have her back and she has been insisting on her return there. Given the circumstances, we told her that Delhi was the only place she could stay or she could exercise the option of leaving India," said a top intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Shuttling first between Jaipur and then Delhi, Nasreen has been staying temporarily in a 'safe house' within the National Security Guards complex for the last three weeks. Unhappy because of her dislocation from Kolkata, her adopted home, Nasreen, has been constantly "badgering" home ministry officials to take her back where she has been staying for the last three years. "I dream of walking around freely in Kolkata. I want to go back, it is my home. I think fundamentalist forces cannot afford to dictate terms," Nasreen said a month back from the safe house she was put up. On Nov 30 Nasreen even agreed to expunge the controversial portions from her biography "Dwidhandita" (Split in Two)that triggered the riots in Kolkata.
However, news channels quoting Nasreen said she might consider leaving India. "Given a choice, I will prefer to leave India," the Bangladeshi author told CNN-IBN.
Last month, in a delicate balancing act, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised to "shelter" Nasreen, but urged her to "refrain from activities and expressions" that may hurt the sentiments of Indian people and harm relations with friendly countries.
Mukherjee's statement came amid the politicisation of the issue of Nasreen's continuing stay in India with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding that she given the status of a political refugee.
However, West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) washed its hands off the matter saying the Bangladeshi writer moved out on her own and it was for the government to decide where she should stay.
CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury has repeatedly asserted that the controversial writer was not forced out of Kolkata by the West Bengal government and the state had no role to play in deciding her stay in the country.
Indian government has virtually asked me to leave: Taslima
Kolkata/New Delhi: Her voice choked with emotion, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen Thursday said the Indian government has virtually asked her to leave the country by insisting she could live here only confined in a room without being able to visit anywhere or receive visitors.
"What have I done? Am I a criminal? Have I committed any crime? I cannot go back to Bangladesh they know. Now they want me to stay like a prisoner in a room without being able to meet anyone," Nasreen told IANS on phone, even as she broke down while speaking from her New Delhi safe house.
Nasreen, living at an undisclosed address in New Delhi under state protection, has been told by Indian officials that she could either continue to stay in the national capital confined or leave the country.
"One Mr Amit Dasgupta from the Indian government met me recently and told me the government decision. I was asking when I could return to Kolkata because it is just impossible to live like this in a room. He told me I would not be allowed outdoor, nor visit anybody or be allowed to receive any visitor if I am to stay in India," Nasreen said. "Can you tell me what do they want?" she asked, her voice breaking down with every word."He clearly told me that I would not be allowed a normal life in India. This amounts to asking me to leave India," she said."I still want to live in India and go back to Kolkata," she said.
"I was given the impression earlier that I would be allowed to return to Kolkata after things cooled down and accordingly was asked to keep mum. I did exactly that till now," Nasreen said.
The 45-year-old writer, who has been virtually on the run since November when she was forced to leave Kolkata following violent protests by radical Muslims demanding her ouster from India, was told of government decision Thursday.
After unprecedented violence in Kolkata by a section of the city's Muslim community, who were demanding her ouster from India, the 45-year-old writer was shifted to Jaipur on Nov 22 and then to New Delhi in secrecy and under heavy security.
The Intelligence Bureau is keeping Nasreen in a 'safe house' within a National Security Guards complex in New Delhi.
In a delicate balancing act, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised to "shelter" Nasreen, but urged her to "refrain from activities and expressions" that may hurt the sentiments of Indian people and harm relations with friendly countries.
Mukherjee's statement came amid the politicisation of the issue of Nasreen's continuing stay in India with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding the status of a political refugee and Indian citizenship for the exiled novelist.
"The West Bengal government has refused to have her back and she has been insisting on her return there. Given the circumstances, we told her that Delhi was the only place she could stay or she could exercise the option of leaving India," a top intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS.
On Nov 30 Nasreen even agreed to expunge the controversial portions from her biography "Dwikhandita" (Split in Two)that triggered the riots in Kolkata.
However, West Bengal 's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) washed its hands of the matter saying the Bangladeshi writer moved out on her own and it was for the government to decide where she should stay.
Exiled Muslim writer hits "house arrest" in India
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An exiled Bangladeshi Muslim woman writer whose presence in India sparked riots said on Thursday that New Delhi was forcing her to live under virtual house arrest, and appealed for more freedom.
Award-winning writer Taslima Nasreen, who criticizes the use of religion as an oppressive force, has lived in the east India city of Kolkata since 2003.
She was rushed from her home and moved from city to city last month when radical Islamist protests against her led to riots, and the army had to be called in.
Nasreen fled Bangladesh for the first time in 1994 when a court there said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslims' religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or "Shame", about riots between Muslims and Hindus.
Several of her books have been banned in India and Bangladesh. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.
Nasreen now lives in a secret security facility in New Delhi, which she has equated with "solitary confinement."
Her fate has become a hot political issue for New Delhi as the Hindu nationalist opposition has accused the government of pandering to Muslim minorities by trying to get her out of the country.
"I don't think that in the name of security I should be put in solitary confinement," Nasreen told the New Delhi Television news channel. "I asked them how long I have to remain in house arrest, they said they don't know."
The government has refused to comment on Nasreen's claims.
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