Taslima should behave like guest only: Pranab

Kolkata, Dec 22: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen will be allowed to stay in India if she behaved like a guest.

"She is a guest and should behave like a guest. She should not do anything that would hurt the people's sentiment", Mr Mukherjee reiterated this while denying a report that the Bangladeshi writer was virtuallly under house arrest. The External Affairs Minister was here to lay a foundation stone of the Centre for Milimetrewave Semicondoctor Devices and Systems at the Calcutta University.

Mr Mukherjee had yesterday informed that Ms Nasreen should talk to officials of the Ministry if she faced any problems. Meanwhile, several intellectuals of the city today took out a silent rally here in support of controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.

Over hundreds of theatre artists and human right activists have demanded that the author be allowed to stay in the place of her own choice.

"Our protest is against the inhuman treatment to Ms Nasreen by both the West Bengal government and Centre. We want that she be allowed to stay at any place in India that she chooses to," said noted actor-director Aparna Sen.

The Centre had given an ultimatum to the controversial writer to either stay in Delhi and confined as official direction or leave the country. Soon after this Taslima had decided to put her next novel on hold, which was scheduled to be release during the Kolkata Book Fair in January.

''With such trauma, I wont be able to complete the book,''he said. She had appealed to the government to "change its mind".

Earlier, the writer after being ousted from Bangladesh stayed in Kolkata, but following the violent protest by Muslim activist, she was shifted to Jaipur on November 22 and then to New Delhi under heavy security.

She is currently in the national capital in confinement and have been barred any contact with media.

UNI