National Commission for Minorities chairman Shafi Qureshi has urged the government to review the decision to let Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen live in India. In a letter to the home minister and the external affairs minister, he has said that she is in the “chronic habit” of “demonising” and “cursing” Islam.

Any debate on freedom of expression and what is often called “freedom to offend” is not going to have a final word – people will cite the case of Husain if you mention Nasreen and of Rushdie if you mention the painter. But why is the minority panel speaking against the policy of the very government it is part of?

Qureshi has also referred to the recent violence in Karnataka over an article in a Kannada newspaper that was purportedly written by Nasreen. Though she immediately issued a statement saying she had not penned the article, Qureshi says it was needless to debate whether the article was written by Nasreen, or if it had been twisted. Is this not a proof of prejudice?