Arundhati Roy vs India

Arundhati Roy once called herself a ‘mobile republic’. Someone quipped: “The ‘mobile’ part catches only the neighbour’s signals."

But one thing is clear: this author-turned-rabble-rouser knows exactly how to penetrate news cycles and stir up public sensitivities. What is a mere charge of sedition or threat of arrest compared to the heady feeling of seeing thy name in the headlines?

“Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this,” said Roy at a recently held seminar in Srinagar alongside beaming Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Last Tuesday, she added a little more fuel to the fire: “I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world.”

Roy’s own ‘mobile republic’ may be free of such “brutal military occupations”, but it certainly is full of hubris. If we go through her public utterances — be it about India’s nuclear testing, the Maoist problem, and Kashmir — it is clear that she is actually not attacking the government of the day, but us — the people.

When Roy denies Kashmir being an integral part of India, she is targeting the average Indian’s sense of history and his/her relationship with this land (including Kashmir). When she calls security forces’ presence in Kashmir a “military occupation” that is “brutal”, Roy is demeaning our jawan who is staking his life in defence of our republic.

A few months back, the stars of her world were the Maoists. “I salute the people of Dantewada who have stood up against such a mighty state,” Roy hollered in Kolkata soon after April 6, when 75 paramilitary troopers and a lone policeman were massacred by Maoists in Dantewada.

One cannot miss the timing of Roy’s utterances on Kashmir. Obama is coming to India and not stopping over in Pakistan. Roy is shouting loudly enough for both Obama and Pakistan to hear. No surprise that the Pakistani media is noticing it. Newspaper Dawn noted: “Amid reports that the Indian government had given permission for her arrest for alleged sedition following her recent call for justice for all Kashmiris, Ms Roy... said... it would be a sad day for her country if its writers were jailed for expressing their ideas while ‘communal killers, mass murderers, (and) corporate scamsters’ roamed free.”

No doubt Roy is enjoying this media attention on both sides of the border. She knows that there is little chance that the UPA government will shackle her when Uncle Sam is coming. Any punitive measure will only amplify what she has been saying. So, aal izz well, but here’s a poser: Can Roy imagine what would have happened to her if she were an award-winning Pakistani author pouring diatribe on Islamabad for illegally holding on to a part of Kashmir and allowing its soil to be the breeding ground for international terror?