According to sources, Taslima was asked to wait until the government would manage to tide over the crisis triggered by the trust vote.
NEW DELHI" It’s not just the captains of industry, but even the controversial Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen who is pleased with the Left’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA government.
Now that the comrades are out of the corridors of power, the government is more than willing to help her stay in India - including Kolkata. Taslima was extradited from Kolkata last year in the wake of protests by a fundamentalist Muslim organisation.
Taslima, who has been in Sweden since the last five months, expressed to top government officials her desire to return to India in a telephonic conversation a few days ago.
According to sources, Taslima was asked to wait until the government would manage to tide over the crisis triggered by the trust vote. She then indicated that she would return sometime in August.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has even assured Taslima the freedom to stay anywhere in India including Kolkata, added sources.
However sources also state that with a hostile government in Kolkata, she may stay there only for only a brief period. The comrades may be fuming but the government is not bothered about them now, as they no longer lend them any crucial support.
Although the government reluctantly extended her visa amid widespread support to the 45-year-old writer in exile, it succumbed to the pressure of the CPI(M)-led government in West Bengal, which did not want her to return to Kolkata.
After she was forced out of Kolkata by the Left Front government citing law and order, Taslima stayed in Delhi for almost a year under heavy security, prompting her to say that she is staying under “house arrest.” She had repeatedly requested the Centre to facilitate her return to Kolkata, but thanks to the CPI(M) and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s clout in Delhi, she was denied the permission.
Her visa expired in February last year and was subsequently renewed.
Earlier, the Bengal government had banned her book “Dwikhondito” (Split in two) which incurred the wrath of fundamentalist Muslims.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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