INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ANI |
Updated: Jan 18, 2020 06:58 IST
Kozhikode (Kerala) [India], Jan 18 (ANI): Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Friday termed the contentious Citizenship
(Amendment) Act (CAA) "very good" and "generous" and suggested that the new law should also include Muslim community, free thinkers and
atheists, who are persecuted in neighbouring countries."It is good to give citizenship of India to persecuted religious minorities from
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan
But even people like me deserve citizenship
They have a right to live in India
The CAA is a very good idea and very generous one," said Nasreen on the second day of the Kerala Literature festival during a session titled
"In Exile: A writer's Journey"."Islam should be more democratised and refined
We need more free thinkers
Uniform civil code should be based on equality, not religion," she said
Citing Muslim "atheists bloggers" who were killed by suspected Islamist militants in Bangladesh a few years ago, she said: "Many of these
bloggers left for Europe and America to save their lives
Why cannot they come to India? Today, India requires more free thinker, secularist, feminist from the Muslim community."Nasreen left
Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of death threat by fundamentalist outfits for her alleged anti-Islamic views
Since then she has been living in exile.The author asserted that fundamentalists should be separated from anti-CAA protests
"Fundamentalism must be condemned
Both minority and majority community fundamentalists are the same
They both are against the developing society and equality of women," she said.Nasreen further said that she always feels like home in India
"People tell me that I am Bangladeshi, a foreigner
However, I always feel like I am at my home
I will live in India and only in India as long as I can," she said
The CAA grants citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities -- Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians --
from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014
