WB govt delaying process of granting citizenship:Taslima

NEW DELHI: Firebrand Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on Monday made an impassioned plea to her 'second home' India to grant her citizenship and blamed the government of West Bengal, her current residence in exile, of delaying the process.

"I have been banished from my country and living away from home for the last 12 years. I don't want to live in Europe any more," Taslima, who flew here on Sunday night from London to attend a publishers' convention, said.

"India is my second home.I have been granted a six-month visa but citizenship is being repeatedly refused to me," the author of works that have created controversies in Bangladesh, and India including 'Lajja' (Shame) and autobiographical 'Amar Meyebela' (My Girlhood Days), said.

She blamed the West Bengal government for "coming in the way of the Centre granting her citizenship status."

"I need a recommendation letter from the West Bengal government before the Centre can consider my request for citizenship. They (WB government) are not granting me the much-needed recommendation before I can call this country my home," said the women's rights activist who fled her country after fundamentalists, outraged at her progressionist views, issued a fatwa against her.

"If I can't live in my own country, and if I have to stay close to home where I can speak my mother tongue, write in my own language, India is the second option. Where else will I go?" asked Taslima. The writer said she will soon make a fresh application to the Centre for citizenship.