Narendra Modi says he will protect Taslima Nasreen

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that he is ready to protect Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen if the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre was unable to provide her adequate protection.

Bhavnagar(Gujarat), Nov 27: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that he is ready to protect Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen if the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre was unable to provide her adequate protection.

The noted and controversial author has been almost on a run for the last few days, and is made to shift from one place to another. Presently, she has been shifted to an undisclosed location in the national capital after her brief stay at the Rajasthan House.

Taking responsibility of protecting her, Modi today said, "If the Centre is unable to protect Taslima, then it can send her to Gujarat. I have the courage to protect her."

"Taslima has been courageous in speaking out against fundamentalists," Modi said at an election rally in Botad, adding that he feared that the Centre would try to send her to another country.

Criticising the UPA Government for being unable to stop Bangladeshi infiltration, he said that now their political partners, Left parties, have forced Taslima to flee West Bengal overnight.

Taslima arrived in the national capital on Friday evening after being taken to Jaipur from Kolkata following protest by people belonging to the minority community.

The BJP, on Sunday, had demanded a political refugee status for Taslima.

Taslima's visa to stay in India is valid till February 17, 2008, and she has been living in exile for more than ten years.

Since the 1990s, she has faced numerous threats from Islamic groups for her writings. Recently, activists of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) attacked her at a book release function in Hyderabad.

The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.

ANI