BJP slams Taslima's arrest under Left heat
The BJP on Friday sought to push the UPA government and Left parties on the backfoot over their secular credentials.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday sought to push the UPA government and Left parties on the backfoot over their secular credentials, accusing the Centre of keeping the controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen under “house arrest” at the behest of the Left parties.
Coming to the aid of the writer, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, “The Centre’s decision reminds of Emergency days. We would like to remind the UPA government at the Centre and CPM-led government in West Bengal that we are no longer living under the Emergency rule of 1975 in which the then attorney general had infamously had the audacity to state that ‘nobody has right to life if government wishes so’.” Ms Nasreen has been asked by the Centre to confine herself to Delhi and stay “out of sight”.
“Neither has Ms Nasreen the freedom to move around in Delhi, nor has the permission to return to Kolkata. What kind of secular democracy is this?” he asked. Charging the Buddhadeb government in West Bengal with submitting to demands of Islamic fundamentalists, the BJP spokesman drew parallels between the government’s treatment of Taslima Nasreen and the Shahbano case. He accused the government of “following the policy of rank opportunism for mere political survival and vote bank politics”.
“The UPA government has placed her under house arrest under pressure from its Left allies to cling on to power and succumbed to Islamic fundamentalists to win vote banks,” Mr Javadekar said, dubbing Ms Nasreen’s “house arrest” as a “matter of shame” for the entire country.
Almost a month after the author was hurriedly rushed out of Kolkata by the West Bengal government, the Centre has informed Ms Nasreen that she is not free to travel to and live in Kolkata, a city that has been her home for four years now. The Centre also advised the author to stay in Delhi and “out of sight” citing security reasons. Ms Nasreen has consistently expressed her desire to return to Kolkata.
The BJP demanded that Ms Nasreen, a “victim of religious persecution in Bangladesh”, be allowed to go wherever she wishes and that she be given political asylum and security.
Coming to the aid of the writer, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, “The Centre’s decision reminds of Emergency days. We would like to remind the UPA government at the Centre and CPM-led government in West Bengal that we are no longer living under the Emergency rule of 1975 in which the then attorney general had infamously had the audacity to state that ‘nobody has right to life if government wishes so’.” Ms Nasreen has been asked by the Centre to confine herself to Delhi and stay “out of sight”.
“Neither has Ms Nasreen the freedom to move around in Delhi, nor has the permission to return to Kolkata. What kind of secular democracy is this?” he asked. Charging the Buddhadeb government in West Bengal with submitting to demands of Islamic fundamentalists, the BJP spokesman drew parallels between the government’s treatment of Taslima Nasreen and the Shahbano case. He accused the government of “following the policy of rank opportunism for mere political survival and vote bank politics”.
“The UPA government has placed her under house arrest under pressure from its Left allies to cling on to power and succumbed to Islamic fundamentalists to win vote banks,” Mr Javadekar said, dubbing Ms Nasreen’s “house arrest” as a “matter of shame” for the entire country.
Almost a month after the author was hurriedly rushed out of Kolkata by the West Bengal government, the Centre has informed Ms Nasreen that she is not free to travel to and live in Kolkata, a city that has been her home for four years now. The Centre also advised the author to stay in Delhi and “out of sight” citing security reasons. Ms Nasreen has consistently expressed her desire to return to Kolkata.
The BJP demanded that Ms Nasreen, a “victim of religious persecution in Bangladesh”, be allowed to go wherever she wishes and that she be given political asylum and security.
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