Taslima ouster - one more feather in the cap of 'secular' India!
Taslima Nasreen, the hounded Bangladeshi writer, has finally left India - a country which boasts of, among others, long traditions of tolerance, equality and secularism. She was harassed and humiliated at the hands of the Indian State which covertly acted in collusion with fundamentalists who finally carried the day. In August 2007 she escaped a murderous attack by a mob of fundamentalist muslims led by some people's elected representatives in the Andhra Pradesh state legislature. Strangely, nobody in government of India condemned the attack. Instead, she was advised by Congress party big-wigs to apologise to the muslim community.
Earlier she was expelled from Calcutta under the false pretext of security concerns by 'secular' comrades who dub every hindu adoring 'mother India' communal. New Delhi regime also cited security reasons for keeping her incommunicado for some eight months now and that was a reason strong enough for her to finally decide on moving out of the country. The ‘secular’ government in India must be feeling relieved at this turn of events especially when the Parliamentary elections are round the corner. The ruling combine and its leftist allies can hope of bringing to their fold a large number of muslim voters who considered Taslima an anathema.
Such myopic acts of vote catching do not serve the nations interests in any manner. The fundamentalists would feel encouraged to resort to more and blatant irrational tactics to undermine the authority of the State which is already under tremendous pressure. Once fundamentalists belonging to one religion get headway the others would not like to lag far behind. The Indian State is thus encouraging fundamentalism among different religions while singing paeans to secularism.
Taslima Nasreen, the hounded Bangladeshi writer, has finally left India - a country which boasts of, among others, long traditions of tolerance, equality and secularism. She was harassed and humiliated at the hands of the Indian State which covertly acted in collusion with fundamentalists who finally carried the day. In August 2007 she escaped a murderous attack by a mob of fundamentalist muslims led by some people's elected representatives in the Andhra Pradesh state legislature. Strangely, nobody in government of India condemned the attack. Instead, she was advised by Congress party big-wigs to apologise to the muslim community.
Earlier she was expelled from Calcutta under the false pretext of security concerns by 'secular' comrades who dub every hindu adoring 'mother India' communal. New Delhi regime also cited security reasons for keeping her incommunicado for some eight months now and that was a reason strong enough for her to finally decide on moving out of the country. The ‘secular’ government in India must be feeling relieved at this turn of events especially when the Parliamentary elections are round the corner. The ruling combine and its leftist allies can hope of bringing to their fold a large number of muslim voters who considered Taslima an anathema.
Such myopic acts of vote catching do not serve the nations interests in any manner. The fundamentalists would feel encouraged to resort to more and blatant irrational tactics to undermine the authority of the State which is already under tremendous pressure. Once fundamentalists belonging to one religion get headway the others would not like to lag far behind. The Indian State is thus encouraging fundamentalism among different religions while singing paeans to secularism.
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