How interesting to see Islamism raise its ugly little head in secular, Marxist West Bengal last week. And how interesting that those proud warriors against ‘communalism’ that constitute the West Bengal government should kowtow to the worst kind of religious fanatics by throwing Taslima Nasreen out of the state on a midnight flight to Rajasthan. Tch, tch, tch! What is happening to Marxists these days? Have they become crypto-communalists while we weren’t looking? A secret cadre of the ‘communal’ Bharatiya Janata Party? How else to explain why those who subscribe to an ideology that rejects religion should bow before its worst manifestation?

Taslima Nasreen is a writer. An intellectual refugee who fled the wrath of Islamists in her native Bangladesh to seek shelter in a country that supposedly stands for secularism and freedom of thought. We owe her protection or we violate the fundamental principles of our Constitution. The Marxist government of West Bengal should be ashamed of itself. Instead of throwing Taslima Nasreen out, the jackboot should have been brought down hard on the Islamists whose violent protests, ostensibly over government brutalities in Nandigram, caused Kolkata to be placed under curfew and the army to be called out.

Taslima Nasreen has been living quietly in Kolkata, making almost no public appearances since she was attacked by Islamists in Hyderabad a few months ago. Why was her name dragged into the protests against what happened in Nandigram? Liberal, secular journalists report that the Islamist mobs that destroyed public property and stoned policemen in Kolkata were incensed not just over Nandigram but over some article that appeared in an obscure Bengali newspaper. If the Marxist government stood by its own principles it would have told the all-India Muslim troublemaking front that this is not Saudi Arabia but India and we cherish the right of free speech. Shame on you, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

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