By IANS
Kolkata : Mindful of the controversy surrounding Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, French writer and philanthropist Dominique Lapierre has pitched for authors’ freedom to write about what they feel.
Though Lapierre declined to comment on Taslima for fear of stoking another row, he saw no reason “why a writer should become a law and order problem”.
“As a fellow writer, I feel every writer should have the freedom to write what he feels,” Lapierre said Monday at a function in Kolkata’s twin district Howrah.
His comments came in the backdrop of the violence in Kolkata Nov 21 over the granting of an Indian visa to Taslima and her forced exit from the city a day later.
Lapierre is no stranger to intolerance as he had faced public ire in Kolkata for allegedly portraying the city in poor light in his 1986 bestseller – “City of Joy”.
Later, Hollywood director Ronald Joffe made his book into an eponymous film in 1991 starring Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Patrick Swayze.
Lapierre visits West Bengal every year. Royalty from “City of Joy” supports various projects for the poor in rural Bengal. He also supports a floating hospital in the Sunderbans.
He was in the city Monday to attend a ceremony to mark the extension of the Lapierre Centre of Excellence for the Disabled, an institution established by the Asha Bhavan Centre, an NGO caring for the physically challenged.
He has promised to bear the entire cost of Rs.12 million needed to construct the building that would house children suffering from autism and cerebral palsy.