'Taslima under house arrest due to pressure'

BJP demands that the controversial writer should be allowed to go wherever she wishes and given political asylum and security.

Taking strong exception to the travel curbs imposed on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, the BJP on Friday alleged that the UPA Government has kept her under "house arrest" under pressure from its Left allies.

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The saffron party demanded that the controversial writer, a "victim of religious persecution in Bangladesh", be allowed to go wherever she wishes and given political asylum and security.

"The UPA government has placed her under house arrest under pressure from its Left allies to cling on to power and succumbed to Islamic fundamentalists to win vote banks," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar alleged.

He said Taslima's "house arrest" was a "matter of shame" for the entire country, which takes pride in the philosophy of "Atithi Devo Bhava" and asserted that the Centre's decision reminds of emergency days.

"Neither has she the freedom to move around in Delhi, nor has the permission to return to Kolkata. What kind of secular democracy is this?" he asked and drew parallel between the Taslima affair and the Shahbano case.

The central government on Thursday barred 46-year-old Taslima, who had been living in an undisclosed location in the Capital for the last one month, from coming out in public or freely meeting people.