Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Dec. 20:
Driving her further to the wall, the Centre has debarred the controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen from returning to her adopted city of Kolkata and from coming out in public or freely meeting people even in the Capital, her current heavily-guarded “safe house”, thereby virtually putting a stark choice to her to either continue staying here under virtual “house arrest” or consider the option of leaving the country.
Hounded out of Kolkata and packed off from Jaipur, Taslima has been living in an undisclosed location under state security cover here for the last month. Today, a senior official of the ministry of external affairs conveyed to her the Centre’s decision that she will not be allowed to go back to Kolkata.
“If I live in India, I would not be allowed outside. I will not be allowed to meet any friends. I will have to live this way in India and it must not be in Kolkata,” an emotionally-shaken and distraught Taslima said, quoting the official’s message to her. The Bangladeshi writer felt the Central government has virtually asked her to leave India by indicating she could live here only confined in a room without being able to visit anywhere or receive visitors.
Wondering what “crime” she has committed, she said the Indian government, despite being aware that she could not return to Bangladesh, would like her to stay here like a “prisoner in a room”. Taslima said she told the official that “I am not a criminal that I will not be allowed to return to Kolkata.” “I told the official (in vain) that I should be allowed to lead a normal life at least in Delhi,” she said. “I will have to live this way in India and it must not be in Kolkata. So I asked them when I will be able to go to Kolkata. They don’t know when. And how long I will have to remain under house arrest. That they don’t know.”
Taslima also said the official made it clear to her that she would only be able to live in Delhi the way she has stayed here so far. She said she was told she would not be able to lead a “normal life” even in Delhi, which, she added, amounted to asking her to consider leaving the country. She asserted that she still wants to live in India and return to Kolkata. Hounded out of Kolkata last month following violent protests by a fringe Muslim body against her stay in the city, where she has lived since 2004, Taslima was shunted out to Jaipur by the West Bengal government. After barely a night, however, she was shifted from Jaipur to the Capital.
There is resentment against the 46-year-old Bangladeshi writer among a section of the Muslim community for her alleged anti-Islam writings. Taslima has denied such charges. A few weeks ago, she even offered to remove some controversial portions of her novel Dwikhandita (Split in Two) in a bid to pacify such Muslim groups. Taslima was forced to leave her country in the 1990s by enraged Muslim clerics.
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The Centre’s fresh ultimatum to Ms Nasreen is believed to have followed discussions between the Centre and the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. Both the Congress-led Central government and the CPM-led state government have sought to wash their hands of Taslima’s stay in India, particularly in Kolkata, due to their perceived anxiety over any adverse Muslim reaction. The Bhattacharjee government has been stonewalling any bid by Taslima to return to Kolkata. The UPA government, which survives on crucial Left support, also appears to be under the CPM’s pressure on the Nasreen issue.
Meanwhile, Mr Idris Ali, president West Bengal Minority Forum, who was released on bail after 26 days, said in Kolkata that Taslima should not be allowed to return to the city.
Taslima Nasrin
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