Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who has been living in exile since 1994, has said no person should be termed an "illegal immigrant".
Her statement comes in the backdrop of the omission of the names of 40 lakh people from the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
The omission has triggered a political slugfest between the ruling BJP and other political parties.
"Early humans moved from Africa to Asia for a better life. Since then humans have been moving. Our human ancestors were not illegal," Nasreen wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
"No person shld be called illegal immigrant. B'deshi ppl who illegally enter India, their acts are illegal based on Indian law, but they r not 'illegal' (sic)," the physician-turned-author wrote on the microblogging website.
In another tweet, she quoted a World Bank report that Bangladeshi economic migrants can go back to their own country from India as "Bangladesh's economy is now much better than before".
In another tweet, Nasreen said, "India has enough Muslims. India does not need more Muslims from neighbouring countries. But the problem is, Indian politicians need them."
The controversial author has been living in exile in India and Europe after having incurred the wrath of fundamentalists back home over a novel written by her in 1994.
The writer had penned her struggles from her time in exile in her book "Nirbashan", which has now been translated from Bengali into English as "Exile".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)