Taslima pleased over Basu remark to return

Dec 26:  The way to Kolkata from New Delhi seems to be getting free for the feminist Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, who replied with cheerful thanks to the former chief minister and veteran Left party leader Jyoti Basu after receiving his publicly spoken message that Taslima Nasrin could return to Kolkata depending on her choice.

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“I am now hopeful to be returning soon to the city and I am grateful to Jyoti Basu for expressing his concern and also for saying I am welcome in Kolkata,” the 46-year-old writer said.

But simultaneously Jyoti Basu has also clarified that although she is free to return, but state government has nothing to do with her security. The Central government would have to ensure the safety of her life here.

“If she wants to return to Kolkata or elsewhere in West Bengal, she is welcome. But the Centre will have to ensure her security here,” Basu told reporters after a felicitation programme organized by CPM-affiliated co-ordination committee at his Salt Lake residence.

Since her exile from Kolkata last month after messing up of situation there over her writings, Basu is first among the Left leaders to spoke in her favour. He said, “I read in the newspapers that she is keen on coming back to Kolkata. Now let’s see what the center says.” Earlier after the mob fury Biman Bose, the party secretary had said that Ms. Nasrin should respect feelings of people of Kolkata, who did not want her to leave further here and so should leave the city.

Commenting on her book Dwikhandita, which had sparked violence in Kolkata last month, the Marxist veteran said that the State Government had already banned the book where she written about Prophet Mohammad could not be accepted. But, simultaneously he also condemned the violence carried out by the assailant for which she was forced to whisk away from the city.

CPI criticised the way Nasrin was sent out of the state. “By sending the author out, we convex before the communal forces. We should be ashamed,” said Manju Kumar Majumder, CPI state committee secretary.



Meanwhile Nasrin has expressed her deep concern for the remark of Jyoti Basu in her thanksgiving reply to him said she was very grateful to him for allowing her to return Kolkata.