The status quo in Kashmir seems to be one of the most difficult problems for the present government. With hardly any positive vibes coming from government's panel of interlocutors, Ms. Arundhati Roy alongside Geelani manages to steal all the media attention by her extremist view on Kashmir issue.
A successful author, novelist and known-activist from Kerela Ms. Roy stated that in her opinion, Kashmir is not an integral part of India and she goes on further in stating that,"After attaining freedom from the British, India itself has become a colonial power."
So much so from the think tank of India. And the opposition, did the better for the hype of her statement by reacting in rage and demanding her to be charged with sedition.
And the headlines spurs through all the channels - "Democracy or Sedition".
We are a pluralist society, and a successful one which has no parallel in the world.
India as a country in itself always represents a nation with balanced attitude. We as one country have never ever displayed any extremist behaviour. We have extremist views proliferating in numerous political parties, extremist groups. institutions and among individuals themselves. But as a secular country India is supposed to respect each and every individual's opinion.
In this case, BJP's reaction spurred many emotions globally. Instantly there were blogs from London Muslim Society and eminent people like Fatima Bhutto tweeting against the India's will to suppress the voice of a well-known Indian author in the name of sedition.
While being proud of our secular and democratic society, it was very irresponsible of the BJP to be impulsive of Ms Roy's statement.
Personally even I felt outraged to hear her comments. Many people will agree here that her statement clearly reflected her ignorance of history. Yet let us not forget that many Indians actually agree with her and majority of them are Kashmiris. Let us not deteriorate the Central Government's image in the eyes of valley people by calling it an act of sedition.
Why can't we like mature citizens respect the freedom of speech and accept another citizen for whatever opinion she has and try to fight the presumed ill-effect of her statements by the same tool - "FREEDOM OF SPEECH"
Let us play it all fair and square!
