Meghnad Desai wants India to protect Taslima

The NRI academic terms the forces against the controversial Bangladeshi writer as fascists and asserts that people in India should stand up to her rights.

NRI academic Lord Meghnand Desai on Sunday said India should protect the controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen from extremists Muslim forces.

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"I feel that not only Ms Nasreen deserves all hospitality, people in India should stand up to her rights," Lord Desai, who returned from India along with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, said.

"Once she is issued a valid visa, the government should assert that Nasreen is a guest in India and will be protected regardless of whoever wants her out. The forces against her are fascists," Lord Desai said.

Nasreen is now trying her luck in New Delhi, where she has been kept under tight security, after being hounded out from Kolkata in the wake violent protests by Muslims and Jaipur.

Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 after huge street protests by demonstrators who decried her writings as blasphemous and demanded her "execution."

She took up residence in Kolkata in 2004 after spending years in Europe and the United States. Nasreen's Indian visa is valid until February 2008.