Although many of you and I differ with this article on Taslima - not because the author's anathema towards the Communists - I think we should patiently listen to all views.
Sankar Ray
Sending off Taslima was a good idea by NN Sachitanand 25 Mar 08 (http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1157569)
Normally, I beg to differ from the Communists. But not in their treatment of writer Taslima Nasreen. Buddhadev & Co. were so right in giving that pesky woman the boot from pristine West Bengal. She was a threat to peace in the state — worse than the Naxals.
Did you observe the righteous anger blazing in the eyes of those rioting youth who were baying for her blood on the streets of Kolkata? If the state government had not quickly swung into action, she would have totally alienated a huge vote bank of the CPI(M). And no political party can tolerate that. And, mind you, this single canker of a woman is not even a citizen of this country.
Yes, yes, one has heard of the Communist Manifesto upholding equal rights for women. Doesn't Brinda Karat get to air her views on the tube whenever the channels want a more personable Left spokesperson than the usual octogenarians? But India is a multicultural nation and the Left cannot impose its notions of equality between the sexes on others. So, it was more judicious to jettison Taslima than provoke the wrath of the mullahs.
After all, she belonged to their faith, not that of the Left.
Please note that the CPI(M)'s approach was fully endorsed by the Congress-led central government which incarcerated the problematic woman. If the CPI(M) did not want to handle a hot potato, neither did the Congress — or for that matter, any other political party. Quite correctly, she has been sent to foreign climes where the most damage she can do is blabber to the international media. And, since Taslima is no Rushdie in terms of literary fame, even this spark of international attention will soon splutter and die out.
In a country where it is the norm to abort female foetuses, keep girls illiterate, burn brides for inadequate dowry, clobber wives regularly in a drunken rage, tease young women on the streets, coerce poor women into prostitution, treat divorcees as whores and confine widows to a dark corner of the house, what right do we have to lionise a lone alien woman, even if she is a writer? All right, all right, we have a tradition of placing women on a pedestal and revering them. But, hey, they should be goddesses or figures from the distant past, not flesh and blood creatures of the present who can upset our peace of mind.
Pranabda was so right. Removing the Taslima thorn and casting it abroad was the correct approach. Her flight has hardly caused a ripple. Even the usual brigade of vocal female dissenters in this country have chosen silence. Perhaps it is because she was cast out by the Communist West Bengal and the secular UPA and not Modi's Gujarat. Considering an attention span of 24 hours for TV news channels and about three days for newspapers, we can safely assume that Taslima will disappear from our minds within a week.
Come to think of it, why are we hanging on to that other thorn which is causing such anguish to our Leftist brethren and their mentors north of the Himalayas? The Dalai Lama has been a pain since he took shelter here five decades ago. He and his followers have made the Dragon breathe fire at us again, just when we were forgetting the singeing of 1962. We can't even threaten to boycott the Olympics since we hardly have anyone to send anyway.
There is only one thing to do. Go back to primitive practices which dictated that when the gods are angry offer them a sacrifice to placate them. Send the Dalai Lama to Beijing. As a return favour, the Congress can ask the Left to support the nuclear deal, however unclear it be. Thus, the country will be rid of a major embarrassment, India's new mentors will be happy and the UPA can continue its merry reign.
The writer is a commentator on public affairs
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