New Delhi: It’s a crucial day for controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin as the Centre is expected to take a decision on her future course of action in India on Sunday.
Taslima, on her part, has indicated her eagerness to return to Kolkata. But CNN-IBN has learnt that the CPM government, in its report to the Centre, says Taslima's presence in the state would threaten peace.
After being hounded from Kolkata and shifted out of Jaipur, Taslima on Saturday kept herself confined to the Rajasthan government guest house in the Capital meeting senior Central Government officials even as her future remained uncertain.
The Rajasthan government has been managing her security at Rajasthan House in Delhi for the past 36 hours. But Central Government officials, who have met her, want to take charge and move her out to a safe location.
On Saturday, the West Bengal government said that she was welcome to return to the state. But the offer looks more like public posturing than a real invitation. Taslima has said in the past that Kolkata is like a second home to her.
Meanwhile, the Rajasthan government is awaiting a direction from the Centre on where Taslima, who is accorded the status of a state guest by Rajasthan, would go and stay.
Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said, “We are awaiting the direction from the Union Home Ministry on her.”
Taslima, who had appeared "tense and harried" when she arrived in Delhi late on Friday night from Jaipur had refused to have dinner but on Saturday morning she was talking freely with officials and had her breakfast, officials said.
Meanwhile, BJP has demanded that Taslima be given the status of a political refugee, just like the Tibetan refugees. The party also said that the writer should be given Indian citizenship.
"Nasreen did not hurt the sentiments of any community, it were characters through which she exposed the plight of women in her novels and it was not her personal views," former union minister and senior BJP leader C H Vidyasagar Rao said on Sunday.
"The Centre should consider to give Taslima Indian citizenship, if such a request comes from her," he added.
Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh have issued death threats to Taslima for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through her writings after which she left the country and went into a self-imposed exile abroad.
Taslima fled Bangladesh in 1994 after huge street protests by demonstrators who decried her writings as blasphemous and demanded her "execution."
She took up residence in Kolkata in 2004 after spending years in Europe and the United States. Nasreen's Indian visa is valid until February 2008.
(With agency inputs)
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