Taslima Nasreen 'forced' to leave India again By Debaprio D Choudhury

New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) Exiled Bangladeshi author
Taslima Nasreen has again been "forced" to leave India after
her brief stay here, prompting the controversial writer to
question the country's secular credentials.

The writer, who returned to India on August 8, said she
had to leave on October 15 following the government's dictum.

"Yes, I was forced to leave India once again... The
government gave me resident permit for 6 months with a secret
condition that I must leave the country in a few days," she
told PTI in an e-mail interview.

The ex-physician-turned-feminist author, who is under
attack from Muslim fundamentalists for her book 'Lajja', said
she is now somewhere in Europe, delivering lectures.

Taslima's second exit from India comes seven months
after she was forced to leave the country in view of protests
by fundamentalist groups against her presence here.

Prior to her departure, she had been living in Kolkata
since 1994 after being exiled from Bangladesh over her book,
which was dubbed anti-Islam by the fundamentalists.

"The condition of getting permission to reside in
India is yet a direction for not to reside in India."

She said she will "go back" to India in January.

"As the door of Bangladesh is closed for me, my home, I
still consider, is in India, in the West Bengal city of
Kolkata. If I am not allowed to return there, then it is back
to nomadic existence again, without a land, without a home,"
the author said.

Expressing her angst over being shunted out again and
again, she said "India, which prides itself of being the
world's largest democracy, an allegedly secular state, could
not give shelter to me."

"They (India) could not give shelter to a person whose
entire life has been spent in the cause of secular humanism, a
person without land or home, who regarded India as her land
and Kolkata as her home...," Taslima said.

"I was shocked to see that not a single political party,
organisation or institution protested against the way I was
treated (in India). Not many individuals, who are regarded
as the standard bearer of secularism, have spoken for me,"
said the Bengali writer of much talked-about books like 'Amar
Meyebela' (My Girlhood), 'Utal Hawa' (Wild Wind) and
'Dwikhondito' (Split-up in Two).

Asked whether she still preferred to live in Kolkata, the
place from where she was forcibly ousted on November 22 last
year, the two-time "Ananda Award" winner said, "Yes, I still
prefer Kolkata.

"I hope I would be allowed to live in Kolkata. I also
request Pranab (Mukherjee) Babu (External Affairs Minister)
and Buddha Babu (West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharya) to allow me to live in the city," she said.

The author also said that she had no hard feelings
against the West Bengal Chief Minister despite that fact that
he banned her book 'Dwikhondito'.

"I still respect Buddha Babu even though he has banned
my book which encouraged the fundamentalists to issue fatwa
against me and start campaign ultimately resulting in my
ouster from the city of joy," said the recipient of Simone de
Beauvoir Feminist Award, 2008.

Taslima said she is writing her sixth autobiographical
book.

"I am writing the sixth part of my autobiography while
giving lectures on important issues like human rights and
freedom of expression," she said. PTI DDC