As a non-resident Bangladeshi novelist, seeking asylum in India, Taslima Nasreen was diplomatically gracious when she acknowledged at the Kerala Literature Festival that “I don’t think that India is intolerant”. As the focus at literary festivals and book fairs is increasingly on personalities and their observations rather than on literature per se, Taslima&’s take on an emotive issue might warm the cockles of the heart of the NDA leadership in Delhi. And while things may not be as bad here as they are in Bangladesh, the novelist&’s plight would suggest that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as much as the BJP and for that matter orthodox Muslims have made themselves vulnerable to the charge of intolerance. It would be pertinent to recall that Taslima was ejected from Kolkata in November 2007 by the CPI-M government under virulent pressure from Muslims who were up in arms against her presence in the city. It is quite another story that many if not most of them hadn’t read a line of her works. Indeed, the state government had to call in the army to restore order across a four-kilometre stretch in the amorphous south-of-Park Street area… to the consternation of the Bengal Area headquarters. More accurately, the issue of tolerance had forced the police to effect a retreat. Once the military mission to restore order was accomplished, Taslima (much against her will) was put on the first flight out of the city to Delhi – a decision that was endorsed by the Alimuddin Street brass.

Admittedly, both the party and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee&’s administration were anxious to avoid a communal backlash over the presence of the author in the city. Both party and government came through as wimpish in the face of an obscurantist protest against literature and the freedom of expression in the wider context. And for close to a decade, she has not been able to set foot in a city that boasts its libertarian credentials. Her books do not feature at the much-trumpeted Kolkata Book Fair. Bowdlerised editions, if at all, are available in obscure corners of the city and sold under the table. Whether in Dadri or Kolkata or in Shiv Sena&’s Maharashtra, it is religious fanaticism that determines the parameters of tolerance. The short point being that Taslima hasn’t been tolerated either by the CPI-M or the orthodox Muslims of Kolkata. Her return to the city has been too hot a potato for the successor administration, arguably because the issue is potentially more sinister than the consumption of beef in certain parts of the country. Cutting across party lines, Taslima can well redefine her perception of tolerance and shed the delusion of “not intolerant”. The compulsion varies from party to party, from government to government.