Learn from Chidambaram, lift ban on my serial: Taslima Nasreen to Mamata Banerjee

NEW DELHI: Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen today advised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to "learn" from Congress leader P Chidambaram and admit it was "wrong" to stop broadcast of a TV serial scripted by her after Muslims fundamentalists objected to it.

"Mamata B should learn from Chidambaram and say banning Taslima's TV drama series is wrong. She shd lift the ban and let the TV to telecast the series," Nasreen said in a tweet.

The broadcast of the author's serial about a Hindu family settled in Kolkata was stopped on 'Aakash Aath' channel in December 2013.

Nasreen had then blamed the West Bengal government for supporting Muslim fundamentalists and tweeted that she felt she was living in Saudi Arabia.

The remarks of the writer, living in exile in India, came a day after Chidambaram admitted banning Salman Rushdie's novel 'Satanic Verses' by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1988 was "wrong". Chidambaram was Minister of State for Home in the Gandhi government when the book was banned.

Nasreen, who drew the ire of fundamentalists for her controversial books like 'Lajja' and 'Dwikhandito' tweeted, "P Chidambaram said the decision to ban Satanic Verses was wrong. When would B Bhattacharya say banning my book Dwikhandito was wrong?". Communist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is a former Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Exiled from Bangladesh in 1994 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with her novel 'Lajja' (Shame), the doctor-turned-author had taken refuge in Kolkata in 2004, after a long stay in Europe.

After violent protests in Kolkata in November 2007, the government sheltered her at an undisclosed location in New Delhi where she has been living since then.