Centre has to decide on Taslima’s stay, says Yechury

Lobbing the ball in the Centre's court on the Taslima Nasreen issue, the CPM said it was for the Union Government to decide on where the Bangladeshi writer should stay.

Lobbing the ball in the Centre’s court on the Taslima Nasreen issue, the CPM said it was for the Union Government to decide on where the Bangladeshi writer should stay.

“It is the sole prerogative of the Centre to decide on the stay of any foreign national. No state government has a role in it,” the CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

Asked whether the Left Front government in West Bengal would welcome her to stay at her home in Kolkata, he said: “It is for the Central Government to decide as to where she should stay. This decision is taken based on the information they (Government) have.”

The CPM leader pointed out that Taslima had stayed in Kolkata for three years without any problem. The things have changed after her visit to Hyderabad (where she was attacked by MIM MLAs and their supporters), he said.

While his party respects an individual’s right to express his or her views, it also expects people not to impose their views on others, Yechury said, adding, hurting the people’s sentiments is not good.

On Taslima’s announcement on Friday that she would withdraw some of the objectionable lines from one of her books, he said, the Muslim organisations had welcomed the gesture.