Govt cancels Taslima Nasreen's resident permit, gives her a tourist visa

Taslima Nasreen it seems has now been cold shouldered by the Centre after getting the royal ignore from Mamata Banerjee. The Bangladeshi writer who has been living in exile for several years after clerics in her country issued a fatwa against her, has had a troubled time finding residence in India for a while now. Today she tweeted that the Indian government has now cancelled her resident permit and issued her a temporary tourist visa instead. Nasreen wrote:According to a report published on 26 July on The Daily Star, Nasreen, who currently resides in New Delhi, had applied for an extension of her resident visa early in June, but had not received a response from the government even in July. [caption id=“attachment_1643545” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Taslima Nasreen. Image courtesy: Twitter.[/caption] “I applied for the extension of my Indian resident permit a month ago. No answer from govt. Never happened before,” Nasreen had said on Twitter on 26 July. She also expressed her anxiety about the visa saying that she would be leaving for a lecture in Oxford and will be unable to return to India without the visa. However, the government seems to have responded only to disappoint her. Nasreen left Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving threat calls from Islamic fundamentalist groups who declared her works were meant to insult their religion. She had been living in exile ever since and has lived in US, Europe and India in the last two decades. However, in several interviews she had expressed her wish to live in India permanently, especially Kolkata which she considered as good as home. The writer had to leave Kolkata in 2007, when in the month of November, Kolkata witnessed a violent protest by a section of Muslims against her works. The Army had to be summoned to bring the situation under control. A day after the incident, Nasreen alleged that she was asked to leave by the CPM government in West Bengal. Nasreen had faced a similar situation in 2010, when the government had refused to extend her resident permit. She had then appealed to the government to reconsider its decision and said if she is not allowed to live in India, she has nowhere to go. The government had paid heed to her please back then.