Keep visiting Kolkata, your safety is my responsibility, West Bengal CM tells Taslima

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday (August 1, 2026) assured exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin of security in the State, saying the “days of threats are over”.

Sharing the stage with Ms. Nasrin at Kolkata’s Rabindra Sadan at an event that marked the writer’s return to the city after 19 years, Ms. Adhikari said: “You are most welcome to Bengal. Please come here whenever you want and as many times as you wish. Your safety is my responsibility.”

Ms. Nasrin was exiled from Bangladesh in 1994 over her writings after which she started living in Europe and then in Kolkata. But she had to leave Kolkata in November 2007, when violence erupted in the city after some organisations called for action against the author over her books. The violence reached such alarming proportions that the Army had to be deployed in the city to contain the situation. She had blamed the Left Front government and the Trinamool Congress government for not allowing her to return to the city.

She reached Kolkata on Friday (July 31, 2026) to attend the event at Rabindra Sadan.

The Chief Minister said Ms. Nasrin’s return indicated that not only had the face of the government changed but the entire system too. “This Bengal is free from any barriers and chains. Every single pillar of the Constitution is safe here. We all have the righteous opportunity for freedom of speech,” said Mr. Adhikari, welcoming the writer with a portrait of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the writer of national song Vande Mataram.

Veteran BJP leader and former Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy also shared the stage with the writer. The audience comprised a number of State Ministers, including Swapan Dasgupta, Agnimitra Paul, and Kalyan Chakrabarti.

Thanks CM

“I have always questioned this city. Did I ever harm you [Kolkata]? I haven’t come for any answer today. I have come back to Kolkata with tears in my eyes and also immense love in my heart. This was my dream for the last 19 years. History remembers who shut this door. Now, history will also remember who opened this door again,” said Ms. Nasrin, expressing gratitude to the West Bengal Chief Minister for facilitating her return.

“It is still painful that a writer had to return to the city of her own language with such high security. I am thankful to the government. But my gratitude is not my allegiance to any party. I have not come here for any political party. I came here to express my voice over women’s liberty and freedom of speech,” the 63-year-old writer said at the event.