New Delhi: The Centre is ready to provide security assistance to the West Bengal Government for the protection of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who has expressed her desire to return to Kolkata, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Bangalore on Thursday.
Mukherjee said Taslima is currently being provided security by the Union Government as she was currently put up in New Delhi where the powers of law and order vests with the Centre.
"So far as states are concerned, it's the primary responsibility of states to provide security," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.
"But if state government wants any assistance from the Centre in respect of that, we will be too glad to provide that," he said.
Mukherjee was responding to questions from the media about the remarks made by veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu stating that Taslima can return to Kolkata if she chooses to, but the Centre has to ensure her security.
The announcement came within hours of an appeal by several prominent intellectuals to the government to relax the curbs put on Taslima. They said Taslima feels like being 'buried alive'.
The intellectuals, including veteran journalist Khushwant Singh and writer Arundhati Roy, in separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi said Taslima should be allowed to exercise 'reasonable degree of freedom' while she gets adequate security.
Their intervention came in the wake of the Centre asking the author, who was forced to leave Kolkata following protests by fundamentalists, from coming out in public or freely meeting people, restrictions described as 'house arrest' by the author.
"While we can understand the need for adequate security, we think this is carrying things too far. Please ensure that while she still gets adequate security, she is allowed to exercise a 'reasonable degree of freedom'," the letter said. The letter was also signed by sociologist Ashish Nandi, filmmakers Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad, Kerala Education Minister MA Baby and Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta.
They claimed that they came to know from Taslima that the conditions under which she is "now living under the care of Central Government was close to prison conditions."
Taslima had told them that despite her repeated requests to the officials in charge of her security, she was neither allowed to receive her friends nor to visit them. "The gaol-like conditions are naturally beginning to strain Taslima's mental health. She can neither sleep at night nor do any work," they said.
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