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Taslima can return to Kolkata

	December 24, 2007

Amidst reports that Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen is being kept under a virtual house-arrest in Delhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that she is free to return to Kolkata which she considers to be her second home. Speaking in Kolkata on Dec. 22, Mukherjee asserted that Taslima Nasreen is not under house arrest. At the same time, he said the writer should not indulge in activities that might hurt the sentiments of a section of the population of the host country.



“She is our guest and we never close our doors to a guest. But at the same time, she should not do anything which hurts the sentiments of the people,”

said Mukherjee after attending a function at Calcutta University.



Earlier, Nasreen had alleged that a senior External Affairs official had told her that she could never return to Kolkata and she must stay put in Delhi

if she chose to stay in India. The Union Minister denied that the author was under house arrest as she had alleged.



“She has been kept in a secured place. I have asked my people to ensure that she does not face any difficulty”, he said.



AICC media department chairman Veerappa Moily said, “the West Bengal government will have to provide security to Nasreen to ensure her shift there,

but it does not want her as indicated by her statements, and the Centre, under such circumstances, could not impose her on the state.”



In a related development, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu reportedly told Taslima Nasreen that ‘they could explore ways to facilitate her return to Kolkata.’

Sources say that the conversation took place on the same day that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to her. CPI(M) politburo member

Brinda Karat and Kerala Education Minister M.A. Baby also reportedly spoke to the Bangladeshi writer.



The CPI(M) has been facing criticism from many quarters for the manner in which Taslima Nasreen was made to leave “secular and progressive Bengal.”



Civil society organisations took out a rally in Kolkata on Dec. 22 demanding the return of Taslima Nasreen to the city. Writer and social activist

Mahasweta Devi, speaking at the end of the rally said, “Taslima Nasreen has been removed from Kolkata by the West Bengal Government because Chief Minister

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is trying to rope in the Muslim vote for the upcoming Panchayat elections in the state.” She alleged that a smear campaign had been

launched against Taslima Nasreen by the state government among the minorities for the sake of vote bank politics. Mahasweta Devi said it was unfortunate

that the UPA government at the Centre was “blindly supporting” the state government in order to ensure

its survival.