Author: Agencies
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 14, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-was-forced-to-leave-india-once-again-tasli.../385701/
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen
has again been 'forced' to leave India after her brief stay India, prompting
the controversial writer to question the country's alleged secular credentials.
The writer, who returned to India on August
8, said she had to leave on October 15 following the government's dictum.
"Yes, I was forced to leave India once again. The Government gave me
resident permit for 6 months with a secret condition that I must leave the
country in a few days," she said in an e-mail interview.
The ex-physician-turned-feminist author, who
is under attack from Muslim fundamentalists for her book 'Lajja', said she
is now somewhere in Europe, delivering lectures.
Taslima's second exit from India comes seven
months after she was forced to leave the country in view of protests by fundamentalist
groups against her presence in New Delhi.
Prior to her departure, she had been living
in Kolkata since 1994 after being exiled from Bangladesh over her book, which
was dubbed anti-Islam by the fundamentalists.
"The condition of getting permission
to reside in India is yet a direction for not to reside in India."
She said she will "go back" to India
in January. "As the door of Bangladesh is closed for me, my home, I still
consider, is in India, in the West Bengal city of Kolkata. If I am not allowed
to return there, then it is back to nomadic existence again, without a land,
without a home," the author said.
Expressing her angst over being shunted out
again and again, she said "India, which prides itself of being the world's
largest democracy, an allegedly secular state, could not give shelter to me."
"They (India) could not give shelter
to a person whose entire life has been spent in the cause of secular humanism,
a person without land or home, who regarded India as her land and Kolkata
as her home...," Taslima said.
"I was shocked to see that not a single
political party, organisation or institution protested against the way I was
treated (in India). Not many individuals, who are regarded as the standard
bearer of secularism, have spoken for me," said the Bengali writer of
much talked-about books like 'Amar Meyebela' (My Girlhood), 'Utal Hawa' (Wild
Wind) and 'Dwikhondito' (Split-up in Two).
Asked whether she still preferred to live
in Kolkata, the place from where she was forcibly ousted on November 22 last
year, the two-time "Ananda Award" winner said, "Yes, I still
prefer Kolkata. I hope I would be allowed to live in Kolkata. I also request
Pranab Babu (External Affairs Minister) and Buddha Babu (West Bengal Chief
Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya) to allow me to live in the city," she
said.
The author also said that she had no hard
feelings against the West Bengal Chief Minister despite that fact that he
banned her book 'Dwikhondito'.
"I still respect Buddha Babu even though
he has banned my book which encouraged the fundamentalists to issue fatwa
against me and start campaign ultimately resulting in my ouster from the city
of joy," said the recipient of Simone de Beauvoir Feminist Award, 2008.
Taslima said she is writing her sixth autobiographical
book. "I am writing the sixth part of my autobiography while giving lectures
on important issues like human rights and freedom of expression," she
said.
