Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Kashmir and Ms. Roy

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!

8 comments:

  1. "It is tempting to see Arundhati Roy as the Arun Shourie of the left. The super-patriot and the anti-patriot use much the same methods. Both think exclusively in black and white. Both choose to use a 100 words when 10 will do. Both arrogate to themselves the right to hand out moral certificates. Those who criticise Shourie are characterised as anti-national, those who dare take on Roy are made out to be agents of the State. In either case, an excess of emotion and indignation drowns out the facts."
    -Ramchandra Guha

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice blog..carry on..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for visiting my blog,and commenting on it....I can't write about anything other than something I am personally connected to. You have a great blog here..very informative..a learning process for me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Alpana. Coming from someone who writes so well, really means a lot to me! :)
    Keep posting, keep reading! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I thought u had stopped writing .. But lately you blogged.
    Plz try if you can get that particular speech of Ms Arundhati Roy, and then try analyze her.. it would be great.
    This one was good, keep it up.. & don't leave this habit

    with regards, pekon

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks bhaiya!! Your inputs are always treasured!! :)
    Please do visit my other blogs too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Sakshi,
    Sorry for delayed reply.. too much caught in work.
    Hope ur working hard too and not juz blogging :)
    Following is link to original video of Ms Arundhati's Speech.

    http://www.jammukashmir.tv/freedom-struggle/arundhati-roy-speech-at-ltg-auditorium-arundhati-roy-speech-at-ltg-auditorium-new-delhi.html?videotitle=Arundhati+Roy+Speech+at+LTG+Auditorium+Arundhati+Roy+Speech+at+LTG+Auditorium+New+Delhi---

    I think she spoke more about problems-of-kashmir than anything against india. But as humans we mostly are driven by passion and not sensibility, so most ppl dont understand her speech well (including the indian court which gave judgement against her)
    however she raise some important points about problems in kashmir, which got all washed away in all this
    keep up the habit..

    with regards, pekon

    ReplyDelete