Persecution of Taslima Nasreen I

French award for Taslima:
But India won't allow ceremony
Dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, winner of this year's Simone de Beauvoir Feminist Award, may not be fortunate enough to personally receive it from French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his visit to Delhi later this week because the Government of India is not too keen about it.
On January 9, the French Government announced that Nasreen is this year's recipient of the coveted award named after the famous feminist writer, close friend of Jean Paul Sartre and author of the celebrated treatise, The Second Sex. The award is conferred on notable women writers.
Nasreen, who has been chosen for the award in Simone de Beauvoir's centenary year, could not travel to Paris to receive it as she remains in the protective custody of security and intelligence agencies in a safe house somewhere in the National Capital Region. There was some apprehension that if she had left Delhi for Paris, she might not have been allowed to return to India although she has a valid visa which expires on February 17.
The French authorities, therefore, decided that President Nicolas Sarkozy would hand over the award to Nasreen during his visit to Delhi later this week. This was conveyed to the Government of India, only to elicit a guarded response. It is believed that South Block has conveyed to the French Government that while India has nothing against Nasreen being accorded the honour, it would not be possible to let her attend a formal ceremony for "security reasons".
Nasreen, who has lived in Paris and whose 2002 novel, Forashi Premik (French Lover), is based on a young immigrant Bengali woman breaking free of a loveless marriage, told The Pioneer she was overwhelmed when she heard that the Simone de Beauvoir Award committee had selected her as this year's recipient. "I could not go to Paris to receive the award, so I was hoping to receive it here, but now there seems to be some doubt about that," she said.
"An official of the French Government called me on Monday night and said the French President would like to personally hand over the award to me during his visit to Delhi. I was delighted and felt deeply honoured," she told this newspaper during a telephone conversation on Tuesday. "But now there seems to be some problem."
While the Government of India is yet to communicate anything formally to Nasreen, the Government of India is believed to be unwilling to agree to a formal ceremony due to "security reasons". Nasreen, of course, insists that in "secular, democratic India I have nothing to fear" and that any suggestion of Muslim fundamentalists taking to the streets is "grossly exaggerated".
Nasreen, who was living in Kolkata for the past couple of years, was forced to leave the city by the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government after Muslim mobs instigated and led by a Congress leader, Idris Ali, ran riot on November 21 last year to protest against her book, Dwikhondito, which had been cleared for publication by the Calcutta High Court in 2004.
After spending a night in Jaipur, Nasreen was shifted to Delhi. Since November 23, she has been under virtual house arrest and is neither allowed to step out of the 'safe house' nor receive friends and visitors there by security and intelligence agencies.

Marxists pander to Muslim fundamentalists

CPM engineered Muslim rage
Taslima thrown out to get Nandigram off the radar
Kanchan Gupta
Jamiat-i-Ulama Hind leader Sidiqullah Chowdhury at a protest rally in Kolkata
Was the recent violence witnessed in some parts of central Kolkata, leading to dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's forced eviction from the city, genuine Muslim anger or manufactured rage? Did the CPI(M) have a hand in organising the rioting? Who has gained the most after mobs took to the streets?
For possible answers, we need to step back and take a look at the sequence of events beginning with the CPI(M)'s smash-and-grab of Nandigram.
When the Marxists let loose a reign of terror in the villages of Nandigram in end-October, ratcheting it up in the first week of November, to recapture territory they had lost to the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee protesting acquisition of farmland for an Indonesian SEZ, they had not bargained for extensive and sustained negative publicity in media.
The CPI(M)'s Nandigram takeover strategy was based on the doctrine of shock and awe, that is, rapid dominance through the use of overwhelming force. Marxist cadre were deployed to block entry to Nandigram and newspersons were chased away. It was hoped that this would prevent media from putting out details.
In the event, the media coverage of Nandigram was beyond anything the CPI(M) could have imagined and hugely damaging for the party. Newspapers and channels across the country picked up the story, as did foreign agencies. The fact that most of the victims of the Marxist mayhem were Muslims painted the CPI(M) in lurid colours.
With Muslim organisations, till now favourably disposed towards the CPI(M), beginning to voice their protest -- Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind said "Muslims in West Bengal are worse off than in Gujarat" - Marxist leaders, yet to recover from being pilloried over police harassment of Rizwanur Rehman and his death in mysterious circumstances, found themselves scampering for cover.
Seeking to capitalise on Nandigram, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind called a three-hour shutdown in central Kolkata on November 15. There was moderate response to the call, disrupting Kolkata's usually chaotic traffic, but there was no violence.
The next day, Pashchim Banga Milli Ittehad Parishad, comprising 12 Muslim organisations, including Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Milli Council, Indian National League, Jamiat-e-Islami Hind and All-India Minority Forum, called a four-hour shutdown. Once again, apart from fiery speeches, the protest was unremarkable. Traffic was stalled at Esplanade, Park Circus, AJC Bose Road and Kidderpore. Not that traffic moves smoothly in these areas otherwise.
Suddenly, the All-India Minority Forum, led by Idris Ali, former head of the local Congress minority cell and a serial 'public interest' litigant in Kolkata High Court, called a three-hour shutdown on November 21 to protest against "Marxist atrocities on Muslims in Nandigram" and demand the "expulsion of Taslima Nasreen from Kolkata".
On the day of the shutdown, mobs emerged from Muslim-dominated areas, many of them in CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Assembly Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim's constituency, Entally, and went berserk, torching vehicles and attacking policemen. Within no time, news channels across the country were broadcasting live footage of the violence.
The footage showed mobs on the rampage and Kolkata Police personnel on the retreat. In one particular shot, a policeman was seen loading a teargas shell and then not firing it as a mob, waving swords and chanting slogans, advanced menacingly.
At none of the places that witnessed violence was the mob larger than 100 hooligans. If the police had wanted to, they could have chased away the mobs. But they didn't. It was almost as if they had been instructed not to act.
Surprisingly, the State Government, which later claimed to have been taken by surprise, promptly called in the Army and imposed curfew. This, too, made headlines as the Army's help had not been sought in West Bengal for the past 15 years although there had been worse incidents of violence.
In sharp contrast to the prompt deployment of the Army in Kolkata, the Left Front Government had refused to deploy CRPF personnel in Nandigram. When CRPF personnel were finally allowed in days after the Marxists had taken over Nandigram, they were not given the power to enforce law and order.
It took less than an hour for the Army to clear out the violence-hit streets and restore order. By early evening, calm had returned and life in Kolkata was back to normal, barring the dusk-to-dawn curfew in a few areas. Briefing newspersons on the violence, CPI(M) politburo member and State party secretary Biman Bose said if Nasreen "should leave Kolkata if her stay disturbs the peace".
What he did not explain was the ease with which mobs had been mobilised by an unheard of organisation and the listless behaviour of the State police. Neither Idris Ali nor his All-India Minority Forum could have organised the crowds. The Forum had already participated in the protest organised by Pashchim Banga Milli Ittehad Parishad and there was no reason for Ali to call a separate shutdown.
Those who track the CPI(M)'s dirty tricks department believe that Ali may have been "encouraged" to call a shutdown and highlight the "Muslim demand" for Nasreen's expulsion from Kolkata. He may have been the proverbial cat's paw. Apart from him, four men may have played a crucial role in securing for the CPI(M) an escape route from the Nandigram mess: Aslam alias Pappu, Ruhul Amin, Sultan Ahmed and Iqbal Ahmed. Aslam, a resident of Alimuddin Street, where the CPI(M)'s State headquarters are located, is a "property dealer" known for his links with the CPI(M). Amin lives in Topsia, has CPI(M) links and a dubious profile. Sultan, a resident of Ripon Street who has switched loyalties from the Congress to the Trinamool, is "open to persuasion if the price is right". His brother Ibal has done a reverse switch though his services are "not strictly restricted to the Congress". On November 21, mob fury was seen in the Ripon Street and Topsia areas, apart from Park Circus.
By the morning of November 22, media focus had shifted from Nandigram to the rioting. That day Nasreen was put on a flight to Jaipur and since then, newspapers and 24x7 channels, especially in West Bengal, have front-paged and prime-timed stories about the CPI(M) "giving in to Muslim demands". Nobody is talking about the CPI(M)'s "atrocities on Muslims in Nandigram" anymore.
Yesterday's 'persecutor' has become today's 'appeaser'.





December 2, 2007





© CMYK Printech Ltd. Unauthorised publication is prohibited.





http://www.dailypioneer.com/