“To a person in exile, every year is a shut door, every month means wait" - says Taslima Nasreen :::: "Aaj ami Kolkatae phire eshechhi ... it took me 19 years to say this"

 "Shrinkhal Mukto Pashimbongo, Badhon mukto Pashimbongo ... (A truly 'free' from all bonds West Bengal is here.  

This is a state where all pillars of democracy is well secured," West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said welcoming Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.  

In 2007 under the Marxists'  regime; she was asked to leave the state. She has returned to the state after 19 years.  

In her speech, she made an emotive point " 

"Aaj ami Kolkatae phire eshechhi, yehi bakya ucharan kortey amar praye uneesh bochhor legechhey (I have returned to Kolkata today; to utter this sentence it took me 19 years)," Taslima said.  

Amid repeated applause from the audience; she said: 

“To a person in exile, every year is a shut door, every month means wait, every day is full of sorrow for losing your home.” 

"I have not only come back to one city; I have come back to a lost pat of my life".   

“You are welcome to Bengal…. Many read your works. You have many admirers. You can speak freely here. You must have experienced a change in Bengal. You can come back again and again, whenever you want,” Suvendu said.

Suvendu added: “Everyone has the right to come to Bengal, everyone has the right to freedom of speech. 

Taslima Nasreen arrived here on Friday, (that) today she is taking part in this event is evidence that democracy, the Constitution and fundamental rights are secure in the hands of the new government.”

Taslima thanked Suvendu but said it was a “painful truth 

(bedona dayak satya) 

...that a writer has to come to a city that speaks her language with police protection”.

Author of 'Lajja' - Bengali novel on the backdrop of anti-Hindu riots in Bangladesh of 1992 - she was asked to leave Bangladesh in 1994. 

This is her first visit to Kolkata since protests over her another controversial book 'Dwikhondito (Bifurcated)' forced her to leave the 'City of Joy' in 2007.

Both the communists and the Mamata regime were known for pushing their named Muslim-appeasing cards.

Taslima, who has lived in exile since 1994 following intense opposition to her writings, arrived in Kolkata from New York on uly 31.  

In her civic reception function, Taslima repeatedly spoke of the need to separate religion from the State and politics.

“Real secularism is not to join the celebrations of all religions but to separate religion from the State, law, politics and education,” she said.

“The State is not meant to protect any religion; its duty is to protect believers and non-believers equally. The state will have no religion; it will only deliver justice. The law will have no religion; it will only have equality for all.” 

Taslima also said : "When you save a life of a writer ... it's not only saving the life of an individual; it is also about protecting his or her right to speak, right to express different views; and it is also providing security to the freedom of the pen of the writer".  

"I dream of a day when a writer will not have to remain and move around in police protection for writing something".  

"I dream of a day when a person of free thinking will not have to leave his or her country".  

“The CPI(M) government (in 2007) threw me out of West Bengal… Kolkata – the city which speaks my language, the city which was my second home, the UPA government forced me to leave the country…," she said in an interview.   

In 2014, after Modi government came to power, she was given a two-month permit.

After which she had sought an appointment with the then home minister Rajnath Singh and was granted year-by-year extensions since then.

Taslima Nasreen said she did not think the government’s decision now to give her three-months stay had anything to do with the Indo-Bangladesh bilateral relationship.

“As an author, I should be allowed to be creative, write… I shouldn’t be concerned about whether I can come home or not. I have lived in exile for 25 years… I don’t want to live in a constant sense of fear and worry now,” she added.

ends