Ending uncertainty over controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen's stay in India, the government on Thursday night decided to extend her visa beyond February 17, with a caution that she remain "sensitive" to India's traditions and not "hurt" its secular ethos.
"The government of India has decided to extend the visa" of Nasreen, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said, but did not specify the duration of her fresh visa.
The six-month visa of the author expires on Sunday. There was speculation whether she will get another extension to stay here in the wake of demands by radical Muslim groups that she be thrown out of the country for allegedly hurting their religious sentiments through her writings.
Nasreen, 45, was bundled out of Kolkata in November 2007 following widespread violent protests by a little-known Islamic group and has been living in an undisclosed place in Delhi for security reasons.
The author has been living in exile abroad since leaving Bangladesh in a cloak of secrecy in 1994 after fundamentalists in her home country issued a religious edict to kill her for writing the novel Lajja, which was alleged to be blasphemous.
Noting that India has had a tradition throughout history of offering hospitality to those who seek it, Sarna said it has also "afforded protection to those who have come as our guests".
Nasreen is "our guest and in keeping with our traditions, we have offered her the same privileges," the spokesman said.
Sarna said it was "incumbent on those who are welcomed as guests in India that they remain sensitive to India's traditions and do not conduct themselves in a manner that either affects our relations with other countries or cause hurt to our secular ethos."
The MEA spokesman said the government expects that "they do not undertake actions that could hurt the sentiments of the many communities that make up our multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation.
These are the same restraints, which we in India follow. We expect nothing less from our guests," he said.
Taslima, however, found support from leading progressive intellectuals who wanted the government to extend her visa.
The government had been weighing all pros and cons about extending the duration of her visa considering the controversy surrounding her writings which have angered radical Islamic groups.
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