New Delhi :21-12-2007.

The CPI(M) on Friday steered clear of controversy over Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen not being allowed to come out in the open, saying the matter was in the Centre's domain.

"It is for the Central Government to decide. The state government (in West Bengal) has nothing to do with it," CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

The CPI(M) led Left-front government of West Bengal had earlier said that Nasreen could return to Kolkata if she felt so. However, it would depend on the Centre to allow her to do so.

Tasreen, who is living in an undisclosed location in the national capital for almost a month after she was forced to leave Kolkata following violent protests by Muslim hardliners had yesterday said that she was in a "virtual house arrest."

"I am not allowed meet anybody. I am not allowed to step outside. I am a Bengali writer and when I was living in Kolkata I was moving around and nothing happened. I want to live in Kolkata. I love Kolkata," she said.

By (H)