By IANS
Kolkata : Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who has been staying under tight security in New Delhi after she was bundled out of Kolkata following riots over her stay in India, Monday said she would die as a writer unless she could return to the city.
“I am not a rightist. I am rather a leftist and I always have believed in equality of all – men, women, poor and rich. I miss Kolkata and I would die as a writer if I am not allowed to stay there,” Nasreen told the Bengali news channel Choubish Ghanta (24-hour) over phone from New Delhi.
“I dream of an equal society where we are all treated in the same way. I write to remove disparity and in support of equality. But my writings have hurt anyone… it is not my deliberate attempt,” she said.
“I have always spoken of equal rights of men and women. I am not a political person and neither do I want to become a currency of political war,” Nasreen said.
“I want to return to Kolkata,” she said.
“Bangladesh has closed its doors to me. Now if West Bengal also closes its doors I will be nowhere. I will die without Kolkata. I am a Bengali after all,” Nasreen said.
Nasreen, 45, was forced to quit her country following a ‘fatwa’ against her by Islamic radicals for her allegedly anti-Muslim writings. She had been living in Kolkata for years but had to leave the city Thursday, a day after protests against her stay turned violent.
After staying a night in Jaipur, she reached New Delhi Friday night amid heavy security.
Her wish to return Kolkata, however, has left West Bengal’s ruling Left Front in a quandary and the CPI-M leaders made ambivalent statements.
While the Communists Sunday remained cagey about her return fearing another violent protest by Muslims who are otherwise seen as Left Front supporters, a leading Muslim cleric warned of more violence if she was allowed to come back.
“If Taslima comes back, the government will face a lot of problems and there will be more violence and trouble,” warned Nurur Rehman Barkati, the imam of the Tipu Sultan Mosque here.
“The Muslim votes will slip and the Left will have to depend on Hindu votes from now on, they have to choose between us and Taslima for once,” Barkati said Monday.