Click to play video“Come what may, I will continue my fight for equality and justice without any compromise until my death. Come what may, I will never be silenced.'' -- controversial author Taslima Nasreen once wrote in her book.
After the West Bengal government pushed her out of the state saying she was injurious to the peace in the state, it seems she has to fight a long battle for her asylum.
Taslima was shunted out of Kolkata on Thursday evening on the advise of a group of Marwari businessmen, who are reportedly close to the Left Front government in West Bengal. However, no state seems to be in the mood to provide her hospitality.
After a 24-hour high-speed dash across four states - Taslima has reportedly taken refuge in Delhi.
With Taslima's visa expiring in February next year, the Central Government will have to take a call on the extension or denial of a visa to her. So Will the UPA then say athithi devo bhava? or will politics influence the decision? One will just have to wait and watch if UPA can salvage the situation.
Should Taslima be asked to leave India? This was the question debated on CNN-IBN’s Face The Nation hosted by Sagarika Ghose.
To discuss the issue on the show were Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen - MIM, Gurudas Dasgupta, MP, CPI and Sandhya Jain, Columnist, The Pioneer.
The initial result showed that 75 per cent of the people saying she should not be asked to leave the country while only 25 per cent disagree to the statement.
The worst thing perhaps about this is that this is happening in Left Front ruled West Bengal. The state that has always protected minority rights, the state that has upheld freedom of expression, there the Left Front can’t protect an author a writer of books. This is surely yet another shocking indictment of what’s going on in West Bengal at the moment.
Regretting the recent happening in West Bengal and the way Taslima was shunted out the state, Dasgupta said, “I am really sorry, extremely sorry and this I believe is quite unexpected. I regret the incident. I regret that we have not been able to protect her.”
Attack on a writer – an embarrassment
The debate was then focused on the outrage against the author and protests carried out by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in Hyderabad.
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Is this the way to protest against an author, a writer of books?
Replying to the question Owaisi said, “Kindly understand that she is a foreigner and 14 crore Muslims are really pained by the government of India’s decision to grant her visa and her staying over here. Muslims feel disgusted about her statements. I am not against freedom of speech but what I am saying is about right to religious dignity. “
However, he added that Taslima being anti-Muslim should not be pardoned at any cost.
Why should Hindu voices protest about the Muslim agitation against Taslima. M F Hussain has similarly painted Hindu Gods and Goddesses and the Hindu groups have targeted him in the same way.
Advocating that Taslima’s case is different from Hussain’s case, Jain said, ”Taslima case is complicated. As a civilisation from the destruction of the temple of Solemn in Jerusalem that is 70 ad we do have a history of giving refuge to people who are seeking our protection. So as a civilisation we are bound to do that.”
“What she has done for Hindu groups here is that when the Hindus were being persecuted in Bangladesh, she wrote a novel which was the first major Muslim voice on that subjects for which Hindus have been grateful and I think civilised people should be grateful,” she added.
Jain then backed Government’s move to allow her to stay in India. And she said that if any religious group is thinking that her writings have hurt religious sentiments of any group in India, the proper way to protest is to approach the law.
However, Owaisi quite disagreed with the fact and pointed fingers on the slow system of law.
“We have protested and we have lodged complaint in the Hyderabad court. Unfortunately FIR was issued but no action was taken,” he said.
Left’s narrow political game
Is the Left playing narrow politics? Left seems worried about the minority vote and therefore it is pandering to fundamentalist forces and abusing freedom of expression.
“I am also a Communist. Today I raised this issue in Parliament and I asked the government that she should be given Indian citizenship and I categorically stated that it is a pity that she had to leave Bengal, “ said Dasgupta.
Owaisi was loud and clear expressing his rights to have religious dignity.
Disagreeing what Dasgupta said, Owaisi opined, ”Anyone who writes anything against Islam are welcomed. The Communist say it is freedom of expression, the right wing people or the Sangh Parivar says it is a freedom of expression - but as an Indian Muslim do I have the right to religious dignity or not?”
Is Left losing the Muslims? The condition of the present Muslim in West Bengal is terrible. The Nandigram incident has created the opinion that the Left has targeted Muslims, in Rizwanur case a Muslim family was targeted, so is Left in danger of losing the Muslim vote?
“It is a total destruction of mind, it is not a truthful statement. The question is very clear, West Bengal is a secular state and there has been no trauma of communal outrage. Therefore we are not afraid of losing any section of the people,” Dasgupta reacted.
Final verdict:
Should Taslima be asked to leave the country?
Yes: 26 per cent
No: 74 per cent
CNN-IBN editorial view
In democratic India how utterly shocking that an author should have to rush from city to city simply because governments cannot guarantee her safety. What do voting and elections mean if democratic freedoms simply do not exist? The Left Front, terrified of losing the minority vote after Nandigram and the Rizwanur case, is now cravenly pandering to fundamentalist forces and tragically failing to uphold basic freedom of expression.
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