TASLIMA FRETS IN ’HOUSE ARREST’

[0109 hrs IST, Times News Network & Agencies]

The Times of India, 21 Dec 2007

KOLKATA: The Centre has told controversial
Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen that she will
have to stay put where she is and would not be
allowed to return to Kolkata under any
circumstances.

Nasreen has been living in an undisclosed
location in the National Capital Region under
heavy security since she was hounded out of
Kolkata a month ago.

The 46-year-old author, who has been living in
exile after death threats to her in Bangladesh,
said she was told by a senior MEA official that
she would also not be allowed to come out in
public or meet people — restrictions she
described as “house arrest”. "If I live in India,
I will not be allowed outside. I will not be
allowed to meet any friend. I will have to live
this way in India and it must not be in Kolkata,"
she said, quoting the government decision as
conveyed by the official. Nasreen said she told
the official, “I am not a criminal.”

The writer, who spent a night in Jaipur and a
week in Rajasthan House after virtually being
thrown out of Kolkata, said she has been told she
would not be able to lead a normal life in Delhi.

"I had told the official I should be allowed to
lead a normal life at least in Delhi," said
Nasreen, who recently offered to delete some
controversial portions from her novel
’Dwikhandita’ to pacify those opposed to her
writings.

"The officials told me if I stay in India, I will
have to stay under house arrest," Nasreen told
TOI , adding, "I don’t have any wish to leave
India." The author said she had hardly any option
now but to agree to MEA’s terms.

TASLIMA’S APPEAL: ’PLEASE LET ME LIVE IN KOLKATA’

Suhasini Haidar / CNN-IBN

TimePublished on Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 01:20,
Updated at Fri, Dec 21, 2007 in Nation section

TASLIMA GETS ULTIMATUM: The Centre sent a
representative to tell Taslima to leave India.

The controversial writer says she did not leave Bengal on her own accord.

New Delhi: Controversial Bangladeshi author,
Taslima Nasreen has nowhere to go and the Indian
Government went about in a convoluted way to tell
her to leave the country.

Taslima was shifted out of Kolkata after outbreak
of large-scale violence in the city during a
’shutdown’ called by a Muslim outfit - All India
Minority Forum - for cancelling her visa, which
was extended by the Government till February 17
next.

She has angered conservative Muslims by her
writing and fled her homeland in 1994 after
radical Muslims demanded her execution. She was
attacked by activists of Majlis Ittehadul
Muslimeen at a book release function on August 9
this year in Hyderabad.

In an exclusive telephone conversation with
CNN-IBN this is what she had to say.

Taslima Nasreen: The Central Government came to
me and told me that I will not be able to go back
to Kolkata now. When I asked the person who came
to deliver the news when will I be able to go
back to Kolkata, he said that he did not know.

Then I asked him whether I could live a normal
life in Delhi if I cannot live in Kolkata and he
said that I would not be able to lead a normal
life in Delhi either.

I hope the Government will be able to reconsider
the issue and I will be able to go back to
Kolkata. If I can have security in Kolkata, then
I can live there.

However, if I cannot go back to Kolkata, then I
want to have a normal life in Delhi. I know that
the people who live in Kolkata want me to come
back and live there.

I love Kolkata and I have got support,
,solidarity and sympathy from the people there. I
know that nothing would happen if I go back to
the city and start living there. I have a home
there and I am missing my home.

I am hoping that the Government will rethink this
and let me go back to my home and will allow me
to have a normal life there.

No writer likes to censor his or her work and I
was forced to delete certain paragraphs of my
work. I hope that nobody will be angry with me
and that I will be able to live a peaceful life
in Kolkata.

TASLIMA SPEAKING TO CNN-IBN VIDEO

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/54629/taslimas-appeal-please-let-me-live-in-kolkata.html

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