India in dilemma over exiled Muslim woman writer

By Alistair Scrutton

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An exiled Bangladeshi Muslim woman writer threatened by radical Islamists has become a victim of political ping-pong in India, bundled from one city to another in a controversy critics say has shamed the secular state.

Authorities rushed award-winning Taslima Nasreen, who criticizes the use of religion as an oppressive force, from her home in Kolkata last week after protests against her by Muslim groups led to riots, forcing the army to be called in.

The riots appeared to be the culmination of years of simmering anger at Nasreen. Some radical Muslims hate Nasreen for saying Islam and other religions oppress women and Indian clerics had issued a "death warrant" against her in August.

After the riots, police moved her to a hotel in the western state of Rajasthan and then she was quickly sent to Delhi at the weekend under police protection.

No one seemed to want her.

"Democratic we may be, but liberal we most certainly are not," wrote Karan Thapar in the Hindustan Times, criticizing India for failing to defend freedom of expression enough.

The controversy highlights the delicate social faultlines of India, a nation born out of secular ideals 60 years ago but where communal politics still play a huge role.

Each move led to criticism that politicians were pandering to Muslim votes and were unwilling to take heat for defending her.

In an editorial on Monday, the Economic Times accused the government of being "afraid of offending the Islamist street".

Critics rallied against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being silent. Women's groups have called on the government to grant citizenship to Nasreen, whose visa expires in February.

Nasreen fled Bangladesh for the first time in 1994 when a court said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslims' religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or "Shame", which is about riots between Muslims and Hindus.

Several of her books have been banned in India and Bangladesh because they upset hardline Muslims. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.

While the Indian government said it would give Nasreen protection, The Times of India said officials had pressurized her to leave the country.

India's main opposition Hindu nationalists, the Bharatiya Janata Party, criticized Singh for his silence and said they would force a parliamentary debate on the issue.

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