Author: D K Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 25, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/243091.html
On the day the West Bengal government said
she "was free to come back", Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen
dismissed as "lies" claims that she chose to leave Kolkata in the
first place.
Nasreen said that she didn't know she was
headed for Jaipur till the flight ticket was handed to her at Kolkata airport
on Thursday by a senior police official.
"They are liars. Everybody is telling
lies," said Nasreen when asked about claims by two Kolkata-based businessmen
that they had facilitated her departure, following last week's violence in
Kolkata, on her request.
Later, West Bengal Home secretary Prasad Ranjan
Ray said in Kolkata that Nasreen could return and "there are security
arrangements for her".
Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
assured Nasreen that there would be "no problem" in extending her
India visa, if she wanted to.
"In fact, her visa had been extended
till February next year. When she applies again, we will definitely consider
it," said Mukherjee.
In Delhi, looking tense, and chatting to Rajasthan
government officials at Rajasthan House here, Nasreen said, "Nothing
happens to MF Husain who has done so many things, while everybody is after
my life."
Husain has often been the target of extremist
Hindu organizations for his paintings of Hindu goddesses, while Nasreen was
forced out of Bangladesh after her book Lajja that Muslim fundamentalists
claimed was against Islam.
Nasreen, however, added that she "still
felt secure in India".
Admitting that she didn't know where Home
Ministry officials would lodge her tomorrow, Nasreen reiterated that she wanted
to return to Kolkata. "I like Kolkata," she said.
According to sources, Nasreen's request -
she conveyed this to BJP leader Prakash Javdekar who visited her today - is
currently being discussed in negotiations between External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee and the West Bengal government.
"But the Left front government is not
very keen to take her back," said the sources.
Nasreen, meanwhile, praised Rajasthan Chief
Minister Vasundhara Raje and her state officials for "taking very good
care" of her over the last two days. Revealing that she spoke to Raje
last evening, Nasreen said, "Only a woman can understand another woman's
problems."
Confirming that Nasreen had never wanted to
leave Kolkata in the first place, officials accompanying her revealed that
she had initially refused to budge when West Bengal government officials told
her that she should leave following the violence in Kolkata.
On Thursday, Kolkata police officials reached
her house to tell her that she had to leave immediately and a car was waiting
for her, they said. At the airport, a senior police official handed over two
air tickets - for her and a relative who accompanied her. That, they said,
was when Nasreen realised she was headed to Jaipur.
The Indian Express had reported on Saturday
that Shree Cement Ltd head HM Bangur and leather exporter Sandeep Bhutoria
had been used by West Bengal police to facilitate Nasreen's exit from the
state. Bhutoria had claimed that Nasreen had wanted to go to Jaipur.
But while Nasreen admitted that she knew Bhutoria,
she denied any such request was made.
Today, besides Javdekar, others who visited
Nasreen included Rajasthan Women's Commission Chairperson, Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee,
who is also Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter.
