India is being held to ransom not so much by religious fundamentalists as by politicians who sway to their beat, particularly at election time, hoping to squeeze out every advantage in a warped kind of votebank politics. The cancellation of the official release of Taslima Nasreen’s new book at the Kolkata Book Fair earlier this week is the latest instance of official India pandering to zealots’ diktats.
Coming soon after the sorry spectacle of the Jaipur Literature Festival prohibiting even a virtual appearance by Salman Rushdie in the face of threats of violence by some Muslim outfits, it is a sad reflection of the Indian establishment’s weakness that it cannot ensure that acclaimed writers can speak and write freely.
The symbolic impromptu release of the seventh part of Taslima’s autobiographical series, Nirbasan (Exile), at the book fair and its brisk sales shows that ordinary Indians have little sympathy with officialdom’s views. It is learnt that some filmmakers who had promised to make movies on Taslima’s books have now shied away due to controversies surrounding the author, who has been on the run from her native Bangladesh after being hounded out by zealots in 1994. She has often voiced her dream of settling down permanently in Kolkata, a spiritual home for a Bengali writer, and even of becoming an Indian citizen. A progressive India and culturally-rich West Bengal should make that possible. Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress would do well to allow Taslima to write and live freely in Kolkata.