From: The Times of India
‘Are Kolkatans becoming cowards?’
Debashis Konar, TNN | Feb 2, 2012, 06.38AM IST
KOLKATA: Surprised that the latest bid to throttle free speech had failed to provoke a city never shy of a protest, an angry Taslima Nasrin asked on Wednesday, "Kolkatar lokera ki kapurush hoye jachchhe? (Are Kolkatans becoming cowards?) "
"It's a shame for Bengal," the author told TOI hours after Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the release of the seventh part of her autobiography, 'Nirbasan' . Nasrin said it had brought back the painful memories of 2007 when she was forced to leave Kolkata, a city she refers to as home. "I never thought this could happen at the book fair. But then, what was unthinkable in Kolkata has already happened once. I was thrown out of the city as some fundamentalists triggered riots on November 22, 2007," she said.
Nasrin still believes the city will welcome her back. "I am optimistic I shall be allowed to go to Kolkata and stay there as I do not have any other place to stay. India is my only place. I still feel Kolkata is my home and I shall be allowed to live in peace there."
She lashed out at radicals for creating an environment of fear. "I fear the fundamentalists can create a ruckus at the stall of my publisher and can vandalize it. 'Nirbasan' is based on the incidents that forced me to leave Kolkata and how I was taken to Jaipur and then to Delhi under house arrest," she said.
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