The CPI (M) on Friday said the “visa and stay” of a foreign national are issues taken care of by the Centre, with regard to the matter of Taslima Nasreen being shifted out of the state.

But, the issue has put the CPI(M) in a spot of bother. If the minority angle is worrisome for the party, equally disturbing is the blow to the “liberal-secular image” of Kolkata and the party’s stand that any attack on the Bangladeshi writer “goes against the democratic and secular character of the Indian polity.”

CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury told The Indian Express: “The West Bengal Government has no role in the shifting of the writer. The visa to a foreign citizen is given by the Centre. It also decides where one can stay in the country.... no state Government has any role in such matters let alone West Bengal.” Senior politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai voiced the same opinion.

But angering the minorities, especially the Muslims, is the last thing the party can afford at this time. The party leaders admit that such an “anti-minority feeling can impact the party not only in West Bengal but in the other stronghold, Kerala also.

However, CPI leader in the Lok Sabha, Gurudas Dasgupta stood up in favour of besieged author. Raising the issue during zero hour in the Lower House, Dasgupta said the country “should not submit to fundamentalism.” Referring to the “tragic circumstances” in which Taslima was shifted from Kolkata to Jaipur after violence in Kolkata, Dasgupta said “it is a pity that she had to leave Kolkata, a city of culture.” Iliyas Azmi of the BSP tried to counter Dasgupta, but he was not given any heed.