Roy: I spoke against brutality
Srinagar/New Delhi, Breaking her silence, Booker prize winner and self-appointed right activist Arunathi Roy on Tuesday said she pities the nation that tries to jail its writers for speaking their mind while communal elements, rapists, murderers and corporate scamsters went scot free.
Reacting to moves by the Centre to slap sedition charges on her, she refuted allegations that her speeches on Kashmir were seditious.
"I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning's papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years," Arundhati said in the statement from Srinagar.
She claimed that she had called for justice in her speeches and accused the Indian state of indulging "in one of the most brutal military occupations in the world".
"
Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice.
I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state,"
she said.
"
Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal **** and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer's husband and Asiya's brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get 'insaf' -- justice -- from India, and now believed that Azadi -- freedom -- was their only hope. I met young stonepelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones," said Arundhati.
She said that whatever she said in Srinagar on Monday and at the convention on 'Azadi - The Only Way' in New Delhi came from love and pride.
"
In the papers some have accused me of giving 'hate-speeches', of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians," she said. She also accused the Government of trying to muzzle her voice.
Meanwhile, terming the remarks made by Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer Arundhati Roy at a seminar here as "most unfortunate", Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said freedom of speech cannot violate patriotic sentiments of the people.
"
Yes, there is freedom of speech...it can't violate the patriotic sentiments of the people," he said.
While terming their remarks as "most unfortunate", the Law Minister said in India there are people who support one view or the other since the time of Ramayana. On BJP's allegations that government remained silent on the developments, he said, "Politics cannot be mixed with statements which border sedition."
Asked whether his ministry had received a request from the Home Ministry seeking its legal opinion on whether the two can be booked for sedition, the Law Minister said, "I was away for three days...I have not seen the file so far".
The remarks made by Geelani and Roy at the seminar had evoked a strong reaction from the BJP with its leader Arun Jaitley accusing the government of "looking the other way" when a number of separatist groups met at a conference to instigate sedition.
Arundhati had whipped up a storm by stating rather vocally that Kashmir was never a part of India.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police is looking into the controversial speech of Arundhati Roy on Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India and does not rule out taking action against the high profile writer and activist. In fact, sources in the government said that a case under 124-A under Indian Penal Code for sedition is possible against Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer Arundhati Roy for their anti-India speeches.
Highly-placed sources in the state home department said the
transcript of the speech delivered yesterday at a seminar 'Wither Kashmir: Freedom or enslavement' organised by Coalition of Civil Societies (CCS) here
has been handed over to the legal department for examination.
Meanwhile, the law officers of Delhi Police have concluded that there is a case for booking writer Arundhati Roy and hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. But the decision on whether to actually take action will be made only after further consultations at the highest level, sources in the Home Ministry said.
Delhi Police sources said they had sought legal opinion on the nature of charges, if any, against Geelani and Roy, and clearance from the Home Ministry.
If legal opinion favours registering a case against the Booker prize winner, the state police would register the same, sources said. Roy is alleged to have questioned Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India.
"
Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this," she said, and also alleged that New Delhi became a "colonising power" soon after its independence from British rule.
This is not the first time the writer has run into rough weather over her speeches. Earlier,
her pro-Naxal write up and speeches had forced Chattisgarh Police to seriously think of booking her for waging war against the country.
On another occasion, Biswajit Mitra, a former BSP leader, had accused her of supporting naxals and demanded action against her following which Director General of Chattisgarh Police Vishwa Ranjan had asked the state legal department to give their opinion.
Roy has come under criticism for her article on naxals -- "Gandhian with guns". The Chief of Chattisgarh Police had said in April this year, "I do not know whether Arundhati Roy has been wrongly influenced by others or she is actually a mole in the civil society. How do I know?"
Cong wants Arundhati to withdraw J&K statement
A senior Congress leader asked noted writer and activist Arundhati Roy to withdraw her statement on Kashmir, saying it was 'contrary to historical facts' and could mislead the nation and the international community.
Reacting to the comment made by the writer at a seminar in Kashmir on Sunday, AICC member Satya Prakash Malaviya said, "It was really surprising to see such an irresponsible statement from someone who is one of the country's best-known writers.
"
She must withdraw her statement which is contrary to historical facts and could mislead the nation as well as the international community," he said. The Booker Prize winning author had said "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this."
The former Union Minister said that Roy "would do better to brush up her knowledge of history and know that the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to the Union of India after its erstwhile ruler Maharaja Hari Singh duly signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947.
"And the state, consequently has become as much an integral part of India as all the other erstwhile princely states have."
Source: Agencies
Roy: I spoke against brutality - National News ? News ? MSN India
