I'm daughter of this soil, hope to get permanent resident permit: Taslima

New Delhi: Relieved after getting a one- year extension on her residence permit, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has expressed hope that the government will consider giving her either a longer permit or a permanent one as she is the "daughter of this soil" and even her cat is Indian.

"India is my home. It would have been better if I did not need to worry every year. There is also the option of issuing residence permit for five or 10 years. I requested former home minister Rajnath Singh ji for this in 2014 as I want to live in India for rest of my life," she told PTI in an interview.

Nasreen's residence permit was extended for one year by the Home Ministry on Sunday. She is a citizen of Sweden and has been getting residence permit on a continuous basis since 2004.

The 56-year-old writer was last week given a three-month residence permit following which she took to Twitter to request Home Minister Amit Shah to extend it for one year.

"I am called a foreigner but I feel like the daughter of this soil. I hope the government will reconsider giving me a permanent or a longer resident permit. I have passed 25 years in exile, still I have to worry every year about the ground beneath my feet. It affects my writing also," she said.

"I feel Delhi is the only place in the subcontinent where I can live peacefully. I would have been very happy if I could live in East or West Bengal but now it is not possible. Now, I want to live the rest of my life in Delhi. If you don't consider me Indian, my cat is Indian, who is like my daughter and has been with me for 16 years," she added.

Nasreen said that despite several countries offering her permanent residence, she chose India as she felt a cultural connect here.

"My home, my books, my clothes, and my documents everything is here. I don't have any home somewhere else. I am settled here. Why I should leave India," she said when asked about the reason for staying in the country.

"I am a European citizen but I left Europe and the US to live here. I chose India over all other countries which offered me citizenship or permanent resident permit," said Nasreen.

She feels that India is much more liberal than any other country in the world as far as freedom of speech is concerned. PTI