Under pressure from the intellectuals as also a section within the Left Front, the CPM on Tuesday softened a bit its stance on the return of the controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen to the city with party patriarch Jyoti Basu taking up the lead, hammering a different tune.

“If she is keen to return to Kolkata or elsewhere in Bengal, she is welcome to do so. But in that case, the Centre will have to take the responsibility and ensure her security,” Basu told newsmen after a felicitation programme at his residence in Salt Lake near here. While it is not known why Basu began towing a different line on Taslima's comeback, Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacherjee maintained a silence so far.

In fact, after the CPM’s Central Committee meeting that ended in New Delhi last week, this is the first olive branch being extended to the harangued writer. Recalling that he had met Nasreen earlier on several occasions, Basu said that he read reports here about her disappointment and frustration for having to stay outside Kolkata for such a long while. “Now, let us see what the Centre says,” he added.

It was only last week that Taslima was sent a missive, reportedly from the Centre, that she could not, at the moment, return to Kolkata owing to the grave question of law and order in Bengal and her security there.

‘Postpone’

Reports over here also said that she directed her publisher to presently postpone publication of the sequel of Dwikhondita (Split Into Two) due for release in the Kolkata Book Fair 2008.

Thanks: Taslima

Taslima expressed her gratitude to Basu for offering her to return to Kolkata. “I hope I will be able to return home soon,’’ she told a private channel.