NEW DELHI: Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin has reignited political controversy ahead of her scheduled return to Kolkata after nearly 19 years, launching a scathing attack on Left leaders in West Bengal for allegedly branding her a supporter of the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindutva. Rejecting the allegations as “false propaganda,” Nasrin asserted that her visit has been organised by a secular organisation and not by any political party.
Taking to X, Nasrin categorically dismissed claims that the BJP was facilitating her return to Kolkata. “Is the BJP bringing me to Kolkata? No. Is the Government of West Bengal bringing me? No,” she wrote.
Clarifying the role of the state administration, she said the West Bengal government was only discharging its routine responsibility by providing security. “The elected government of West Bengal is only providing security for my visit. Whenever I travel to any state, irrespective of which political party is in power, it is the responsibility of that state’s government to ensure my security. That is a normal administrative duty,” she stated.
Nasrin said her August 1 visit has been organised by Secular Mission, led by Osman Gani Mallik, whom she described as a “progressive Muslim personality.” According to her, attempts to portray the visit as a BJP-sponsored event were politically motivated.
In a strongly worded post, Nasrin accused sections of the Left of hypocrisy, arguing that the very leaders who had once forced her out of West Bengal were now attempting to portray her as aligned with the BJP and the RSS.
“They had driven me out of West Bengal, and now they claim that merely setting foot in the state makes me a Hindutva supporter, a BJP supporter, or an RSS supporter,” she wrote.
Drawing a comparison with Kerala, Nasrin recalled that she had visited the state several times during CPI(M)-led governments and had been welcomed while receiving Z+ security. “At that time, did these Left leaders in Kolkata abuse me as a Leftist, or did they celebrate my visits?” she asked.
Questioning the controversy surrounding her visit, Nasrin said she would be returning to Kolkata after 18 years, eight months and 10 days, and wondered why a two-day literary programme had triggered what she called a campaign of misinformation.
The exiled author also renewed her criticism of successive governments in West Bengal.
She alleged that the Left Front government had expelled her from Kolkata in 2007 following violent protests over her writings, while the subsequent Trinamool Congress government prevented her from entering the state, stopped the telecast of a television serial written by her and cancelled one of her book launches.
Nasrin further accused sections of the Left of appeasing Islamic fundamentalists while remaining silent on issues relating to freedom of expression and reform within the Muslim community. Concluding her remarks, she questioned how long, in her view, some Left leaders would continue “to wear the mask of progressivism while speaking the language of jihadists.”
Nasrin is scheduled to visit Kolkata on August 1 to participate in an anti-fundamentalism literary event at Rabindra Sadan, where she is expected to recite poetry. The programme has been organised by a group of secular and anti-fundamentalist organisations.
The visit will mark her first return to Kolkata since November 2007, when the then Left Front government asked her to leave the city after violent protests erupted over portions of her autobiographical work Dwikhandita. The unrest led to Army deployment before she was moved out of the city. She later stayed in Jaipur and Delhi before receiving a long-term resident permit from the Central government.
Her proposed return has acquired political significance, with BJP leaders describing it as a correction of what they call years of political capitulation to religious fundamentalism, while the organisers maintain that the event is intended to welcome back a writer to the city she once regarded as her cultural home.
