Can’t go to Kolkata, Centre tells Taslima
Arindam Sarkar, Hindustan Times
December 20, 2007
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=22b928d3-63af-440c-b577-fa860a21b9b6

The External Affairs Ministry has informed Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen that she cannot return to Kolkata because of security reasons.

The ministry has also told Taslima, who is now in an unknown location close to New Delhi, that even if she stays back in India, she has to keep away from the public and will not be allowed to meet people in her house.

Taslima’s friends feel this is a message from the central government to tell Taslima to leave India for good. Her friends also doubt if Taslima’s residential permit visa will be renewed early next year.

Sources said the Centre’s decision on Taslima comes after the latest meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The CM informed Mukherjee that he would not allow Taslima to return to Kolkata as he would not be able to ensure her security.

Taslima, who spoke to HT over the phone, said a senior foreign ministry official, Amit Dasgupta, met her on Wednesday evening at a different location to communicate the central government’s decision.

After spending days in what she described as “solitary confinement”, Taslima said she has received the shock of

her life. “I am wiling to stay back in Delhi till normalcy returns and return to Kolkata. But I cannot even imagine the Indian Government driving me out of this country,” said a sobbing Taslima.

“How can a human being remain locked in a house and be stopped from meeting her own people. My life has become unbearable. I want the Indian Government to give me back my normal life,” she said.

With her back to the wall, Taslima, however, ruled out leaving India and settling in Europe. “I want to stay here without any restrictions,” she said.

The author said she wants to remain in Delhi till things are normal but the Indian Government should provide her with adequate security and ensure a normal life, as she loves this country and its people.

“Ever since I have been exiled from Bangladesh in 1994, India has been my country. And I want to return to Kolkata, where I have been staying for the past three years. How can a democratic country like India drive out a writer in distress?” asked a harassed Taslima.

The writer said it seems immense pressure was being mounted on her and the Indian Government by some vested interests, as her six-month residential permit expires on February 17.

Because Taslima believes that for the last three years every time the renewal of her residential permit draws

close, controversies are raked and she finds herself in the eye of a storm.

A few weeks ago, Taslima instructed her publishers to drop the blasphemous portions of her novel Dwikhondito to appease Muslim leaders in Bengal.