Renowned Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen feels killing people for eating beef is not intolerance but a 'heinous crime' and it should be stopped.
"It is not that suddenly intolerance has started here. India as a country is not intolerant as India has Constitution and laws which do not support intolerance. But some people are intolerant everywhere...because of strict laws you cannot practise intolerance. Here, so many secularists protested against intolerance, that is a good sign," she said.
"Killing people for eating beef is not intolerance but a heinous crime. It needs to be stopped," Taslima, who was in Kerala recently to participate in the Kozhikode Literary Festival, told a Malayalam television channel.
Asked if she wants to be a citizen of India, now with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being at the helm, Taslima said she feels that the Indian government is "neutral and secular".
She said she would be more than happy if government allows her a residence permit. "If I am allowed to reside in India, I will be more than happy," she said, adding, the central government's recent decision to grant Pakistani singer Adnan Sami, Indian citizenship, was a "good sign".
As she was not wanted in Rajasthan either, then UPA government asked her to leave India and promised to do everything for her in Europe, the author said.
"I didn't want to leave India. I wanted to live in a country where people speak my language. It was so important for me to live in a country where people speak my language," said Taslima, a citizen of Sweden, who has been getting Indian visa on a continuous basis since 2004.
The 52-year-old author's visa was extended for a year by the Home Ministry in August last.
Asked if she felt there was political pressure on the government in asking her to leave India, Taslima said she writes for secularism, women's rights, human rights and humanism.
"So, I feel political parties should not object against my writing. I am against religious fundamentalists...Not only Muslim fundamentalists, but all kinds of fundamentalism," she said.
Indian women should have their own rights and freedom.
"It is a patriarchal society. People are misogynists. Rape, domestic violence, female infanticide are common here."