[Reader-list] Arundhati Roy on Taslima Nasreen and Nandigram: Interview on IBNlive.com with Karan Thapar

Mon Dec 3 03:33:02 IST 2007

As much as I am an admirer of A Roy's wit and
intelligence and her stance on various issues;I don't
agree with her stance on this particular one,that
is,if one can call it one.
1. I wonder why people try to argue away the offense
felt by someone with statements like "its too great a
religion and should not be bothered by something so
inconsequential" ,which is very subjective.If someone
gets shot by a gun,do you treat the wound or try to
argue it away somehow,that oh you shouldn't feel the
pain it shouldn't really hurt etc.? A non physical
offense felt by a person is as real as a physical one.
You can say that you have got to put up with it;but
saying that you shouldn't actually have felt it in the
first place;is just plain silly and condescending.

2.I have said this before and I want to repeat it. We
should not shy away from making the distinction
between  genuine critique and downright
provocation,politically correct reductionism not
withstanding. Its not that difficult.When you read or
come across something,you can easily make it out.The
printing of Mohammed cartoons repeatedly was
provocation,not a genuine critique.Some of the
language used by Taslima falls in the same category,as
Karan Thapar has rightly pointed out.
3.I think that the "unwashed masses",rural or
urban,feel that the media and the intelligentsia  have
an "up yours" attitude towards them and I dont blame
them for it.If some people in the media would have
come out and called Taslima, Hussain etc for bad
taste;the unwashed masses would probably not have
wanted to get them banned etc They probably feel that
they do not have a voice in media,which is what shapes
the thoughts and minds and thats why they try to take
matters into their own hands.

regards
Rahul

--- shuddha at sarai.net wrote:

> Dear All,
> 
> (Apologies for Cross Posting on Reader List and
> Kafila.org)
> 
> As we have been discussing both Nandigram and the
> situation that Taslima
> Nasreen has found herself over the last few weeks, I
> thought that it might
> be interesting to listen in on a conversation that
> Karan Thapar has had
> with the writer Arundhati Roy that takes on both
> these questions. This
> interview was broadcast earlier today on CNN-IBN. I
> found the transcript on
> the IBNlive.com website
> 
> regards
> 
> Shuddha
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> 
> Transcript of Arundhati Roy interviewed on the
> treatment of Taslima Nasreen
> by Karan Thapar on 'Devil's Advocate', broadcast
> this evening on CNN-IBN
> 
> The transcript was published on Sun, Dec 02, 2007 at
> 20:32, on the CNN IBN
> website
>
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/if-treated-like-taslima-id-give-up-writing/53464-3-single.html
> 
> To watch the video of the interview - see - 
>
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/53464/12_2007/devils_arundathi1/if-treated-like-taslima-id-give-up-writing.html
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> Hello and welcome to Devilâs Advocate. How do
> Indiaâs leading authors
> respond to the treatment given to Taslima Nasreen
> over the last 14 days?
> Thatâs the key issue I shall explore today with
> Booker Prize- winning
> novelist Arundhati Roy.
> 
> Karan Thapar: Arundhati Roy, let me start with that
> question. How do you
> respond to the way Taslima Nasreen has been treated
> for almost 14 days now?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: Well, it is actually almost 14 years
> but right now it is
> only 14 days and I respond with dismay but not
> surprise because I see it as
> a part of a larger script where everybody is saying
> their lines and
> exchanging parts.
> 
> Karan Thapar: She, I believe, has been in touch with
> you . What has she
> told you about the experience that she has been
> through?
> 
> Arundhati Roy:Well I have to say that I was
> devastated listening to what
> she said because hereâs this woman in exile and
> all alone. Since August
> sheâs been under pressure, she says, from the West
> Bengal police who
> visit her everyday saying, âGet out of here. Go to
> Kerala, go to Europe
> or go to Rajasthan. Do anything but get out of here.
> People are trying to
> kill you,â not offering to protect her but saying
> get out. On 15th
> November when there was this huge march in Calcutta
> against Nandigram, they
> said, âNow youâre going to be killed so weâre
> going to move you from
> your flat to some other placeâ and they did it but
> they withdrew most of
> her security which is paradoxical because on the day
> when she was
> supposedly the most under the threat, she had no
> protection. A few days
> later they gave her a ticket and pushed her out of
> the state.
> 
> Karan Thapar: Listening to the story she told you
> about herself, do you
> believe that the West Bengal governmentâs
> behaviour has been unacceptable?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: Well it has been utterly,
> ridiculously unacceptable. I mean,
> what can I say? Here you have a situation where
> youâre really threatening
> and coercing a person.
> 
> Karan Thapar: Far from protecting her, they were
> threatening her?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: Absolutely.
> 
> Karan Thapar: What about Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee? He
> is a poet, he is an
> author; how does he emerge from this story?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: He emerges from the story, as far as
> I am concerned, as the
> principal scriptwriter who managed quite cleverly to
> shift all the
> attention from Nandigram to Taslima and Taslima is
> not the person who is
> displacing the poor peasants of Nandigram. She is
> not the person who is
> robbing people of their daily.
> 
> Karan Thapar: So he used her as a pawn to take the
> pressure off himself in
> terms of Nandigram?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: I think very successfully because we
> are discussing her and
> not Nandigram right now.
> 
> Karan Thapar: So heâs failed to stand by any of
> the constitutional duties
> that as a Chief Minister he should have upheld?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: I should say at this point that we do
> not have the
> constitutional right to free speech. We have many
> caveats between us and
> free speech so maybe he has upheld the
> constitutional rights to us not
> having free speech.
> 
> Karan Thapar: On Friday, Taslima announced that
> three pages from her
> autobiography Dwikhandito, which allegedly had given
> offence to critics,
> are to be withdrawn. Do you see that as a sensible
> compromise or a mistake?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: Well, neither. She does not have any
> choices. She is just
> like a person who has now got the protection of the
> mafia which is the
> state in some way. She has nowhere to go. She has no
> protection. She just
> has to blunder her way through this kind of
> humiliation and I really feel
> for her.
> 
> Karan Thapar: You used an interesting phrase. You
> said she has to blunder
> her way through this humiliation. Was withdrawing
> those three pages,
> admittedly under pressure, a blunder?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: I donât know. Honestly, we can all
> be very brave in the
> security of our lives but she has nobody to turn to
> and nowhere to go. I
> donât know what I would have done in that
> situation.
> 
> Karan Thapar: She had no other choice, perhaps.
> 
> Arundhati Roy:She really is in a mess. I think it is
> a reflection on all of
> us.
> 
> Karan Thapar: Letâs come to the issues and the
> principle that underlie
> what I call the Taslima Nasreen story. To begin
> with, do you view freedom
> of speech as an absolute freedom, without any
> limitations or would you
> accept that there are certain specific constraints
> that we all have to
> accept?
> 
> Arundhati Roy: It is a complicated question and has
> been debated often. I
> personally, do view it as something that should have
> no caveats for this
> simple reason that in a place where there are so
> many contending beliefs,
> so many conflicting things, only the powerful will
> then decide what those
> caveats should be and those caveats will always be
> used by the powerful.
> 
> Karan Thapar: So youâre saying that given the fact
> that many people are
> vulnerable, freedom of speech for them should have
> no caveats, it should be
> absolute and thatâs their only protection?
> 
=== message truncated ===

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