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Taslima Nasreen and the Left |
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B. I. SAINI
The race to court and shun Taslima Nasreen has exposed the way political parties use emotive issues to build their votebanks and damage rival parties. The Left has come out the worst in the whole episode but the Congress and the BJP are not far behind. There appears to be a race among various parties to nurture their votebanks even at the cost of damaging their credibility.
The way Taslima Nasreen was made to leave Kolkata in a hurry is significant. She was virtually forced to leave the West Bengal capital just after media reports highlighted the fact that most of the people who died or otherwise suffered during the CPI(M)’s “recapture” of Nandigram belonged to the Muslim community. This
was followed by a demonstration by the Muslim minority organisations in Kolkata, where Taslima Nasreen’s alleged anti-Muslim bias also came in for attack. The mob wanted the visa of the Bangladeshi writer to be revoked.
Despite the Kolkata police’s denial, it is apparent that the West Bengal authorities had a role in Taslima’s shifting, a day after the demonstration, to Jaipur. She was ostensibly moved out of Kolkata on considerations of her own safety, though the state
government is now denying any role in the matter.
Interstingly, the Congress has now come out with the disclosure that the West Bengal government had opposed grant of visa to Taslima Nasreen as far back as 2004. Obviously, the CPI(M) led government did not want to annoy its Muslim votebank despite the Left talk of being a secular outfit. It is apparent that the state government was not keen to host Taslima Nasreen, though it never made its reservations public.Even now, state government officials claim that they never opposed the grant of visa. They say that granting visa is the Centre’s business, and they have nothing to do with that.
The prime objective of the Left Front government’s recent moves in the matter is apparently to regain the support of the Muslim minority, alienated from the CPI(M) because of what happened in Nandigram.
The Congress clearly has brought up the Left opposition in 2004 to grant of visa to Taslima Nasreen, and the Centre over-ruling it, to shore up its secular credentials. In the given situation, it may help the party to cut into the BJP votebank in
Gujarat, where Assembly elections are taking place later this month. The Congress is pulling out all stops to defeat the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the state.
In an ironical move, the BJP is now advocating Taslima Nasreen’s case and is pleading that she should be trated as a political refugee at par with Tibetans living in India.
Taslima Nasreen has now withdrawn the offending parts of her book, which had drawn the Muslim community’s ire. All political parties and other outfits would now do well to let the controversy rest and not stoke the fire further.
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