The Hindu : Front Page : Taslima Nasrin sent to Jaipur

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Friday, Nov 23, 2007
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Taslima Nasrin sent to Jaipur

Marcus Dam

‘I have no place to go, India is my home’

Taslima Nasrin

KOLKATA: The controversial Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasrin, arrived in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on Thursday after having been escorted out of Kolkata by police.

On Wednesday, protesters belonging to the All-India Minority Forum indulged in violence here demanding the cancellation of her visa.

“The Kolkata police has been advising me to leave the city on grounds of my security, and I was brought here as it was felt that I would be safe here,” Ms. Nasrin told The Hindu over telephone from Jaipur. The author said she had been put up in “a private place.”

“I have no place to go. India is my home, and I would like to keep living in this country till I die,” Ms. Nasrin said. “Here, in this country, I have got the love and sympathy of the people for which I am grateful.”

Ms. Nasrin’s visa, which was renewed by the government of India in August, expires on February 17, 2008.

‘Special place for Kolkata’

“I have a special place in my heart for Kolkata and hope that I can get back. I do not believe that Kolkata is a place for fundamentalists even though some hooligans had been incited by a handful of them to create violence there on Wednesday,” Ms. Nasrin said. “It is the spirit of Kolkata that I applaud. It is a progressive city where the people believe in secularism.”

Kolkata “has become my home” and its “people speak the language I write in.”

‘Nothing against Islam’

“As for my works, never have I written anything against the Islam religion. They are all about the sad plight of women in our society,” Ms. Nasrin said.

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