Arundhati Roy’s recent yapping was beyond rationality. If rationality was food then she would be dying of hunger. Of course, then she would be blaming the so-called right-wing Hindu nationalist, Indian government, Indian army, the capitalism and the freckled lady that looks at her every time she looks in the mirror! What she won't do to survive (in our fantasy world of rationality) is to actually meditate on her thoughts for at least five seconds before speaking. Rationality, you see, doesn’t come attached with her royalty checks nor was it presented to her with Booker.
She is a certified nut-job who constantly needs media attention and since, she ran out of words or ideas to put a decent book together, she shops around for so called ‘causes’. She is an equal opportunity employee when it comes to finding things to protest. Religious, regional, economical and social, she is ready to sell herself for all. She is a professional provocateur. She believes that she is voicing the voiceless and standing up for the powerless. But in a rapidly globalizing world where protest is a thing of past and lobbying and organizing is the new mantra, she ends up hurting the cause rather than helping. But I understand, woman’s gotta eat, woman’s gotta protest. And in this case insult and provoke the very nation that feeds her and gives her the freedom to speak.
Criticizing your mother nation isn’t wrong. Dissent, if valid, is a cornerstone of democracy. India is one of the very few nations on mother earth that grants the right to express. I also understand the important role artist play in democracy. It’s their job to dispute the status quo and voice the concerns of the society. They are the medium for society to express and aspire. But freedom of expression should be accompanied by responsibility. Yes, you are free to say anything but that doesn’t mean you should. You can’t curse people because, all though it’s perfectly legal, it’s not civil. Similarly, you can’t accuse for the sake of it because that’s unethical.
But Ms. Roy neither fathom depths of ethics nor can she carry weight of responsibility.
I wonder where she gets cajones to spread outright lies. Is it her Booker prize that gives her guts to brand whole of Indian army as rapists? Or is it the sad realization that her royalty from her one and only book is fast running out and without provoking another controversy she will go broke? President of United States was to visit India soon and she seized the opportunity with both hands. Time to make some green.
Honestly I never thought she will run out of royalty. May be, people finally realized beyond grandiose vocabulary there’s nothing in the book.
“Kashmir was never part of India”
“Indian Army is raping all Kashmiris”
“India is ruled by upper caste Hindus”.
I have to admit that this lady go for big. All these sparkling rubies that she spit out aren’t innocent hyperbole.
They are outright lies.
The absurdity is not hard to discern. Any kid with basic knowledge of Indian subcontinent can point his middle finger to such ludicrosity. If Kashmir is not part of India then nothing is part of India or is everything’s part of India? Ms. Roy obviously needs to take basic history lessons. Instead of spreading her imagination at Harvard it will serve her better if she takes history of Indian Subcontinent 101 at Harvard. And she should continue her ‘education’ in Common Sense 101, How Not To Sale Yourself 101 and Minding Your Own Damn Business 101!
India in its current avatar is a quite recent happening. Before that Pakistan and Bangladesh were India too. Forget about Kashmir, even Pakistan and Bangladesh was India.
Before 1989 Indian Army wasn’t as active as it is right now. Ethnic cleansing of Hindus by Muslims was happening since 1985 and then Muslim terrorists started wrecking havoc further and in response Indian army started patrolling Kashmir Valley. And before making her “rape” statement she should have checked rapes across India.
And India is ruled by upper castes? Current President of India is a woman of not upper caste. Current Prime Minister is a Sikh and supremo of ruling party is a evangelical foreign born Catholic. Last President of India was a Muslim and one before that was a lower caste Hindu. India is probably the only country so active in affirmative action’s that government actively works towards disfranchising upper castes!
She is clever in not making such statements where people might ask her questions. She will speak in Kashmir forum and will share podium with a known India-hater but she don’t have guts to attend a Kashmiri Pandit conference.
It seems that her Booker prize wrecked havoc in her upper deck wiring. Her brain, perhaps shrinking because lack of real activity, is suffering with rare disorder that makes her unable to digest facts and comprehend reality. May be she needs to update her operating system that works in this century.
She can’t fathom the fact that world has moved on and she is the one left behind. She is a redundancy as far as any constructive dialog is concerned. She is good only for her preposterous, shrill, absurd fantasies. In her delusional world everyone in the world is an oppressor and she needs to stand up for them.
Alas, who is going to stand for us whom she is relentlessly oppressing?
