As an young 10th grade student with naive thoughts about religion, fundamentalism and life in general I discovered this book called "Lajja" which was supposed to be a banned book. It was not a profound piece of literature, considering I have come to read better works in English, but it had an honesty and helplessness about it that nobody has managed to replicate. It was dubbed anti-Islamic but in reality it was anti-fundamentalism at its best and feminism portrayed with rare poignance. Even as a 15 year old I could understand this, but it got widespread condemnation from the Islamic world. I have come to know since then that Taslima had various things to say on Islam some of which were derogatory. I dont have exact knowledge of everything she said but the general import of her statements is that she was trying to voice the concerns of women in Islamic societies.
In 2007 December Taslima is in news again caught in a web of fascist/communist politics and pseudo secularism that has come to play a defining role in Indian social life. The central government must be smiling ear to ear watching the CPI in Bengal behave like the Nazis in Nandigram and then trying desperately to divert attention away from that to Taslima. But the Congress refuses to condemn CPI's conduct of Taslima fearing repercussions from its muslim vote banks! It is crazy how Pranab Mukherjee gave this stupid caveat after promising protection for Taslima::
"Those given shelter in India have always undertaken to eschew political activities in India or any actions which may harm India’s relations with friendly countries. It is also expected that the guests will refrain from activities and expressions that may hurt the sentiments of our people."
As Arundhati Roy pointed out in a IBN program this is like sentencing Taslima to a life time of good behaviour as judged by the skewed political figures that have come to rule us! What does he mean when he says not to hurt sentiments? There are parties like the BJP which hurt minority sentiments every day, his own party which hurts Hindu sentiments by treating them like second class citizens in a country where they are a majority and finally he is in power precisely because of the great old man from TN, Karunanidhi, whose main political platform has been hate Brahmin, Hindi and Hindu(order dictated by current situation). This kind hate politics has been the hallmark of 2o th century India and when such things can happen why gag a poor lady?
