New Delhi: After being hounded out of Kolkata, controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen was again on the run on Friday as the Rajasthan Government asked her to leave for "lack of proper documentation."
Accordingly, after an overnight stay in the Pink City the Bangladeshi author on Friday morning left for Delhi, where the Cabinet Committee on Security held a special meeting to discuss the issue. Opposition parties have, meanwhile, slammed the CPI(M) Government in West Bengal, saying the episode exposed the 'so called' secular character of the Left.
Taslima, meanwhile, has been provided with a tight security blanket on her way to Delhi. Rajasthan Inspector General (Security) Meghchand Meena said Taslima has been provided 'Y' grade security by the Rajasthan authorities on the request of their West Bengal counterparts.
She is being accompanied by an individual, identified as Faisal, and escorted by several Rajasthan police personnel on her way to Delhi. She was supposed to reach Delhi by air on Friday morning, but her programme was changed and she left by road.
Taslima complained of being 'unwell' and said the episode has become too much of a 'mental distress' for her.
The author had been shifted to Jaipur from Kolkata on Thursday night after violent protests by a Muslim outfit in Kolkata demanding her deportation. The protests had forced the West Bengal government to call out the Army to quell large-scale violence.
Taslima checked into Hotel Shika near the Civil Secretariat under heavy security on Thursday night. Police had sealed the hotel entrance and thrown a security cordon around it. All vehicular traffic in the area had been diverted. Over 30 police personnel had been deployed to guard her in the hotel.
However, hours later the Rajasthan Government asked her to leave the state. "The West Bengal Government did not consult us before they sent her here. She did not have any proper document with her. And since that was the case, we sent her to Delhi, because now the centre has to take care of this issue," Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said.
Sources said Taslima left for Delhi early on Friday following threats by a Muslim organisation, the All India Milli Council, which said it will hold demonstrations in Jaipur if the writer was kept in the state for long. Opposing her stay in the city, Milli state vice-president Engineer Mohd Saleem said: "Freedom does not mean that one could abuse any religion."
The Opposition parties and some of CPM's own allies have slammed the West Bengal Government for the move. The BJP said the whole "Taslima episode has exposed the so-called secularism of CPI-M." BJP leader LK Advani called Taslima on Thursday afternoon and urged her to come to Rajasthan and then to meet him.
Former Union minister and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani also criticised the move, saying it doesn't suit a country like India to reject an asylum seeker. "The government should have had the guts to withstand some criticism and the loss of a few votes," he said.
CPM's Left Front ally said the West Bengal Govt's decision to shift Taslima out of Kolkata was wrong. "It is a condemnable decision to send her to Rajasthan," RSP leader Abani Roy said. He said Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhatacharjee "should not have allowed this to happen."
(With agency inputs)
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