Back-channel negotiations between the Centre and West Bengal, with a little help from Taslima Nasreen’s “literary friends” in Kolkata, got the author to delete three pages from her book and lower the temperature of the controversy that has seen her shuttling from one safehouse to another.

In fact, if today’s developments are an indication, Nasreen should be in the city before the Kolkata Book Fair slated for mid-January.

She said as much, speaking to The Indian Express, shortly after her publishers said that she had asked for three pages of her book Dwikhandita to be removed. These, critics say, carry “disparaging” remarks about the Prophet.

“Things had taken such a turn that my security and safety have come under great risk in any part of the world,” Nasreen told The Indian Express today. “Islamic fundamentalists would not have allowed me to rest in peace anywhere in the world. My intention is never to hurt anybody’s feelings and if my writings hurt the sentiments of others, it’s better to withdraw such portions. I am withdrawing some lines from the book.”

The decision was immediately welcomed by a jittery CPM, sections of which had backed Muslim groups objecting to her presence here after a street protest on November 21 turned parts of the city into a battleground and forced the government to call out the Army.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, one of the most vocal critics, said the author is free to return to the state. “This (deleting) is a good step and we are happy that good sense has prevailed. If she had taken this step before, then a lot of conflict could have been avoided,” said Siddiqullah Chowdhury, general secretary of the body.

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