TASLIMA

18 Feb 2010

TASLIMA'S RESIDENCE VISA LAST & THAT TOO FOR ONLY SIX MONTHS

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: Controversial exiled Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen on Wednesday applied afresh for a "permanent residence" in India even as the government gave her the residence permit for another six months, saying it will not be renewed any further.

For the 46-year old author, India is her "adopted and cultural home" since she was hounded out from homeland by Muslim extremists in 1994 with death threats, though she got the residence permit only in 2004 after a decade of stay in Europe and United States.

The government is, however, not allowing her to go to Kolkata, her second home from where she was thrown out early 2008 after the Muslim hardliners protested at her writings and triggered riots. For most of last two years, she has remained in the United States despite getting her residence permit for stay in India renewed every six months as the government gives it only after she buys air ticket to fly out.

She said this time too she got the residence "visa" for only six months and not for a full year as reported in the Media and that she has been told that it was the "last time" her permit has been extended.

Her situation is alike that of the Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie, who had gone into hiding in Delhi but was eventually forced to leave India.

"I don't know where I will go if India does not give me shelter," said Taslima, who is staying at the residence of a former diplomat in the prominently Bengali colony of Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi. Intelligence sleuths and police guarding her 24 hours does not permit her to meet journalists even when she is out in the market, though she remains in telephonic touch with some.

She had the Swedish citizenship but she has burnt the passport she got from the Swedish government and continues to fight with the Bangladesh government that has refused to renew her Bangladeshi passport to return to homeland.

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