At a time when India is projecting itself on the world’s
stage as a modern democracy, while it hosts international literary
festivals and book fairs, the Government of India, most mainstream
political parties and their armed squads are mounting a concerted assault
on peoples’ right to free speech.
It is a matter of abiding shame that even as some of the
world’s best known writers were attending the Jaipur literary festival and
prestigious publishers were doing business at the World Book Fair in
Delhi, the exiled Bengali writer Taslima Nasreen was (and is) being held
in custody by the Government of India at an undisclosed location somewhere
in or around Delhi in conditions that amount to house arrest. Contrary to
misleading press reports stating that her visa has been extended, her visa
expires on February 18, after which she is liable to be deported or remain
confined as an illegal alien.
Taslima Nasreen is only one in a long list of journalists,
writers, scholars and artists who have been persecuted, banned,
imprisoned, forced into exile or had their work desecrated in this
country. At different points of time, different governments have either
directly or indirectly resorted to these measures in order to fan the
flames of religious, regional and ethnic obscurantism to gain popularity
and expand their ‘vote banks’. Every day the threat to free speech and
expression increases.
In the case of Taslima Nasreen it was the CPI(M) and not
any religious or sectarian group who first tried to ban her book
Dwikhondito some years ago. The ban was lifted by the Calcutta
High Court and the book was in the market and on best-seller lists in West
Bengal for several years. During those years Taslima Nasreen lived and
worked as a free person in Kolkata without any threat to her person,
without being the cause of public disorder, protests or demonstrations.
Ironically, Taslima Nasreen’s troubles in India began
immediately after the Nandigram uprising when the people of Nandigram,
mostly Dalits and Muslims, rose to resist the West Bengal government’s
attempt to take over their land and tens of thousands of people marched in
Kolkata to protest the government’s actions. Within days a little known
group claiming to speak for the Muslim community asked for a ban on
Dwikhondito and demanded that Taslima Nasreen be deported. The CPI(M)-led
government of West Bengal immediately caved in to the demand, informed her
that it could not offer her security and lost no time in deporting her
from West Bengal against her will. The Congress-led UPA government has
condoned this act by holding her in custody in Delhi and refusing, thus
far, to extend her visa and relieve her of her public humiliation. They
have once again played the suicidal card of pitting minority communalism
against majority communalism, a game that can only end in disaster.
Inevitably, hoping to make political capital out of the
situation, the BJP is publicly shedding crocodile tears over Taslima
Nasreen, going to the extent of offering her asylum in Gujarat. It seems
to expect people to forget that the BJP, VHP and RSS cadres have been at
the forefront of harassing, persecuting, threatening and vandalising
newspaper offices, television studios, galleries, cinema halls,
filmmakers, artists and writers. Or that they have forced MF Husain, one
of India’s best known painters, into exile.
Meanwhile, in states like Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka, away from the public glare of press conferences and television
cameras, journalists are being threatened and even imprisoned. Prashant
Rahi from Uttarakhand, Praful Jha from Chhattisgarh, Srisailum from Andhra
Pradesh, P. Govind Kutty from Kerala, are a few examples. As we speak,
Govind Kutty, who is on a hunger strike in prison, is being force-fed,
bound hand and foot. Scores of ordinary people, including people like
civil rights activist Binayak Sen, have been arrested and held illegally
under false charges.
We the undersigned do not necessarily agree with, endorse
or admire the views or the work of those whose rights we seek to defend.
Many of us have serious differences with them. We agree that many of them
do offend our (or someone else’s) religious, political and ideological
sensibilities. However, we believe that instead of making them
simultaneously into both victims and heroes, their work should be viewed,
read, criticised and vigorously debated. We believe that the freedom of
speech and expression is an absolute and inalienable right, and is the
keystone of a modern democracy.
If the Indian government deports Taslima Nasreen or holds
her as an illegal alien, it will shame and diminish all of us. We demand
that she be given a resident’s permit or, if she has applied for it,
Indian citizenship, and that she be allowed to live and work freely in
India. We demand that the spurious cases filed against MF Husain be
dropped and that he be allowed to return to a normal life in India. We
demand that the journalists who are being illegally detained in prison
against all principles of natural justice be released immediately. n
