Taslima Nasreen upset with Indian govt after being given 2-month visa

New Delhi: Controversial writer Taslima Nasreen, who is living in exile since 1994, has been refused a one-year visa by the government and instead given permission to stay in India for two months.

The 51-year-old writer had applied for a resident permit and the Home Ministry granted her the same type of visa but only for two months beginning August 1.

Taslima Nasreen

A verification process of Nasreen's visa application has also been initiated by the government and the two-month visa has been given pending a decision on the longer-term visa.

"After the verification process is completed, we will take an appropriate decision," a Home Ministry official said.

Upset over India's decision to grant her 2-month visa, Nasreen, who had to leave Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of death threat by fundamentalist outfits for her alleged anti-Islamic views, said the decision was "beyond my imagination".

"Indian govt has cancelled my resident permit that I started getting since 2004 (sic). Issued a temp (sic) tourist visa for 2 months. Beyond my imagination," she tweeted.

Taslima is now a citizen of Sweden. She has been continuously getting Indian visa since 2004.

She had been living in exile since 1994 and has lived in the US, Europe and India in the last two decades. However, on many occasions she had expressed her wish to live in India permanently, especially in Kolkata.

The writer had to leave Kolkata in 2007 following violent street protests by a section of Muslims against her works.