Taslima gets support from fellow writers

SUPPORT STAFF: Writers like Arundhati Ray (R) have come out in support of Taslima.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: Even as Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen continues to be confined at an undisclosed location due to security concerns, fellow writers are now up in arms over her plight and have spoken out.

Taslima has already made her desire to return to Kolkata very clear.

''I want to go back home. I want to go back to Kolkata,'' she had said sometime back.

But three months after a violent protest in Kolkata, she has been living in confinement at an undisclosed location in Delhi.

Taslima has been granted an extension of her residency permit but the government says it's unable to redress her grievance of loneliness and that she cannot be allowed to return to Kolkata because there are too many security concerns.

"Some are against her and some are in favour of her. The government will take its own time to decide. After all what is the hurry," TR Kakkar, former Commissioner of Police, Delhi says.

But a vocal group of writers are demanding her freedom of expression and movement and they had recently petitioned the Home Ministry that they be allowed to meet her.

They were livid that they were denied permission and are adamant they’ll continue their fight for Taslima's freedom.

"The threat to free speech comes as much as from chemical hubs and iron ore mines, from the project of land grab, enclosure and displacement as it does from religious fundamentalism," Arundhati Roy, 1997 Booker Prize winner, says.

"We are only bothered about their sensitivities. Why can't we be bothered or the government be bothered about the sensitivities of the liberal class," noted poet Keki N Daruwala adds.

The government decided to extend her visa but they are unwilling to grant her freedom in the real sense of the term. Perhaps the issue of Taslima's freedom has become too closely associated with minority politics in the country.

(With inputs from Arunoday Mukharji)