By Sujoy Dhar, IANS
Kolkata/New Delhi : Her voice choked with emotion, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen Thursday said the Indian government has virtually asked her to leave the country by insisting she could live here only confined in a room without being able to visit anywhere or receive visitors.
“What have I done? Am I a criminal? Have I committed any crime? I cannot go back to Bangladesh they know. Now they want me to stay like a prisoner in a room without being able to meet anyone,” Nasreen told IANS on phone, even as she broke down while speaking from her New Delhi safe house.
Nasreen, living at an undisclosed address in New Delhi under state protection, has been told by Indian officials that that she could either continue to stay in the national capital confined or leave the country.
“One Mr Amit Dasgupta from the Indian government met me recently and told me the government decision. I was asking when I could return to Kolkata because it is just impossible to live like this in a room. He told me I would not be allowed outdoor, nor visit anybody or be allowed to receive any visitor if I am to stay in India,” Nasreen said.
“Can you tell me what do they want?” she asked, her voice breaking down with every word.
“He clearly told me that I would not be allowed a normal life in India. This amounts to asking me to leave India,” she said.
“I still want to live in India and go back to Kolkata,” she said.
“I was given the impression earlier that I would be allowed to return to Kolkata after things cooled down and accordingly was asked to keep mum. I did exactly that till now,” Nasreen said.
The 45-year-old writer, who has been virtually on the run since November when she was forced to leave Kolkata following violent protests by radical Muslims demanding her ouster from India, was told of government decision Thursday.
After unprecedented violence in Kolkata by a section of the city’s Muslim community, who were demanding her ouster from India, the 45-year-old writer was shifted to Jaipur on Nov 22 and then to New Delhi in secrecy and under heavy security.
The Intelligence Bureau is keeping Nasreen in a ‘safe house’ within a National Security Guards complex in New Delhi.
In a delicate balancing act, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised to “shelter” Nasreen, but urged her to “refrain from activities and expressions” that may hurt the sentiments of Indian people and harm relations with friendly countries.
Mukherjee’s statement came amid the politicisation of the issue of Nasreen’s continuing stay in India with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding the status of a political refugee and Indian citizenship for the exiled novelist.
“The West Bengal government has refused to have her back and she has been insisting on her return there. Given the circumstances, we told her that Delhi was the only place she could stay or she could exercise the option of leaving India,” a top intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS.
On Nov 30 Nasreen even agreed to expunge the controversial portions from her biography “Dwikhandita” (Split in Two)that triggered the riots in Kolkata.
However, West Bengal ‘s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) washed its hands of the matter saying the Bangladeshi writer moved out on her own and it was for the government to decide where she should stay.