Every Bengali in West Bengal and Kolkata should rise up for Taslima Nasreen – India cannot keep her in a virtual jail
Smitha Malini
Feb. 18, 2008

Leading Indian intellectuals, including Booker prize-winner Arundhati Roy, have criticized India's officially secular government for not doing more for Nasreen and in particular the communist leaders of West Bengal for not allowing her back.

It is a saga of Muslim vote game mastered by Sonia Gandhi and the communists in India. They do not like Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi writer, who exposed the Islamists in Bangladesh who killed, raped, and tortured Hindus for centuries.

Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslims'' religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or "Shame", in which she argued the Hindu minority in Bangladesh was poorly treated.

The controversial author was rushed out of her home in Kolkata, capital of the communist-ruled state of West Bengal, in November after violent protests by Muslim groups.

She was first taken to Rajasthan and then moved to an undisclosed "safe house" in New Delhi, where she cannot have visitors and only has a mobile phone, a laptop, and a television set to connect her to the outside world.

"I have not committed any crime, so why have they locked me up?" she said, sounding as though she were virtually in tears in a telephone interview.

She said Indian authorities extended her visa last week, but said she could not leave her house, which is guarded by police.

Every Bengali in West Bengal and Kolkata should rise up for Taslima Nasreen – India cannot keep her in a virtual jail
Smitha Malini
They do not like Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi writer, who exposed the Islamists in Bangladesh who killed, raped, and tortured Hindus for centuries.
READ MORE>>

Indian Defense Research and Development reaches another prestigious mark - under sea ballistic missile ready for testing
Anil Rane
According to Chief Controller of the Defense Research and Development S Prahlada, Indian will soon test fire the missile K-15, with a range of 700-km, from a pontoon immersed in the sea.
READ MORE>>

Maoists in Orissa a major problem for India – the violence and counter violence continues
Anil Rane
During combing operation in the border areas of Nayagarh, Ganjam and Kandhamal districts, the Indian security officials claim that a large number of armed Maoists were gunned down.
READ MORE>>

Bomb kills 48 PPP supporters – all eyes on Musharraf again!
Hritik Chawla
A bomb attack outside a Pakistani election candidate's office killed at least 48 people on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for a general election meant to complete a transition to civilian rule.
READ MORE>>

Raj Thackeray compares his stand against Hindi people with that of Gandhiji against the British – but!
Balaji Reddy
British were foreigners. They raped mother India for more than two hundred years through illegal occupation. What Gandhiji did was still ‘nonviolent’. Raj Thackeray may be right in his own mind. But he cannot preach violence.
READ MORE>>

Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and West Bengal can finally decide the fate of Sonia Gandhi
Kiran Chaube
It may be the time for the Italian born Indian leader to reassess her performance in Indian politics. Congress Party, after losing state after state, is finally focusing on three upcoming state and panchayat elections...
READ MORE>>

MORE ARTICLES >>