CPI for citizenship to Taslima

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) Urging the West Bengal government to initiate steps to ensure safe return of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen to Kolkata, the CPI today demanded permanent residency or citizenship be granted to her.

CPI Floor leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta said he had talked to the Bangladeshi novelist and was told that she was not allowed to communicate with others.

He described as ''very very unfortunate'' the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement that Ms Nasreen should not indulge in politics. ''She has not been doing polticis at all.'' Mr Dasgupta said her writings might have stirred controversies but she was a recognised writer, whose basic human right to freedom of expression must be protected.

Ms Nasreen was targeted by AIMIM activists during a press conference in Hyderabad. Later, during a bandh over the Nandigram issue in Kolkata, fundamentalists demanding her deportation indulged in violence and arson.

The West Bengal government shifted her to Jaipur, citing security concerns from where she was taken to Delhi and then to an undisclosed location by Intelligence sleuths.

UNI