[Reader-list] If only Arundhati would quit India... - by Kanchan Gupta

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

  If only Arundhati would quit India

By Kanchan Gupta, The Daily Pioneer

Link -
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=kanchan%2Fkanchan194.txt&writer=kanchan

 There can be nothing more pathetic than a middle-aged 'radical' preaching
treason and penning seditious pamphlets. As a friend, who spent his 20s
fighting for lost causes and getting beaten up by the police before being
frog-marched to Kolkata's Lalbazar lock-up on more than one occasion and has
since settled down to a life of affluence in the US, pointed out, people
with spreading midriffs and receding hairlines do not make a pretty sight
while manning the barricades. Regis Debray participated in the 'revolution
in the revolution' and then joined the establishment. Daniel Marc
Cohn-Bendit, better known as 'Danny the Red' and a hero of the summer of
1968, now heads a group of loopy Greens in the European Parliament. Tariq
Ali, he who breathed fire and brimstone every time he opened his mouth,
leads the occasional march against America in London and writes ponderous
articles for *The Guardian* which are dutifully read by the street-fighting
generation. So, you see, my friend said, pouring himself an extra large
measure of single malt, it's best you leave dissent to the young for whom
being on the Left is as fashionable as wearing Prada.

 That conversation, which took place on a winter evening at his suburban
home in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, came to mind as I read about
Arundhati Roy's seditious comments after attending a rally organised by
Muslim separatists of the Kashmir Valley on August 19. She was clearly
impressed by the turnout, as were Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his cohorts when
they saw the first train carrying future Pakistanis trundling into what was
supposed to be the 'land of the pure' but has turned out to be a sinful
Jihadistan. Jinnah, the 'sole spokesman', and his Muslim League were equally
delighted by the bloodletting on Direct Action Day, August 16, 1946, and
held it up as evidence of the impossibility of Muslims cohabiting with
Hindus in Hindustan. Six decades later, more Muslims live peacefully with
Hindus in Hindustan than Muslims live with Muslims in Pakistan. But we
digress.

 "If no one is listening then it is because they don't want to hear. Because
this is a referendum," Arundhati Roy told mediapersons after the rally,
"People don't need anyone to represent them, they are representing
themselves." She then went on to assert with a flourish, "India needs* azadi
* from Kashmir as much as Kashmir needs* azadi* from India." There is
understandable anger over her remarks, although the Congress need not have
tried to distance itself from Arundhati Roy's new age sedition: It's the
appalling denigration of nationalism and faith in the nation, which the
Congress unabashedly indulges in to proclaim its 'secular' credentials, that
encourages Arundhati Roy and her tribe to ridicule India, repudiate our
national identity and revile our democracy. Curiously, it's rather strange
that having declared some years ago that she was "seceding from India",
Arundhati Roy continues to foul this land for which she has nothing but
contempt. Or else she would not have used her invitation to a book-reading
session in the US to declare that "there is no democracy in India".

 A pity. If only we were not democratic to a fault with a quisling for Prime
Minister and a dissolute Congress in power, Arundhati Roy would have been
hauled up under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, amended in
2004-05. The Act says, "Secession of a part of the territory of India from
the Union includes the assertion of any claim to determine whether such part
will remain a part of the territory of India." The offences listed under
this law include any assertion or statement "which is intended, or supports
any claim, to bring about, on any ground whatsoever, the cession of a part
of the territory of India or the secession of a part of the territory of
India from the Union, or which incites any individual or group of
individuals to bring about such cession or secession".

 Since Arundhati Roy has not denied having said what has been attributed to
her by the media, she should be prosecuted. Others have landed behind bars
under the same law for having said and/or done stuff that pales into
insignificance when compared to her latest call for treason. The law, we are
told every now and then, applies equally to all. But as George Orwell was to
demonstrate, while all animals are equal, some are more equal than others.
So, she gets away with no more than a wimp of a response from our political
class. Page Three familiarity helps beat the system in this wondrous land of
ours. Another way of looking at Arundhati Roy's treachery would be to feel
sorry for her. As I said earlier, there's nothing more pathetic than a
middle-aged 'radical' trying to grab space in newspapers and time on
television, courtesy dumb journalists and starry-eyed anchors.

 But Arundhati Roy is not alone in perverting the truth about Jammu &
Kashmir. On August 20, *Hindustan Times* carried an asinine article written
by Rajmohan Gandhi, defending the indefensible. In normal times, there would
have been no cause to respond to Rajmohan Gandhi's article, 'Lal before the
storm'; the rant of someone who has monopolised the market for charming
though inconsequential tales from the life of a certain Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi does not really merit serious comment. But these are not normal
times. Hence, Mr Gandhi's sly innuendoes and his attempt to peddle the same
old bunkum about Jammu & Kashmir needs to be contested, if only to show that
it is he who has indulged in half-truths and non-truths to provide oxygen to
the fire raging in the Kashmir Valley.

 It is obvious that Mr Gandhi has either not bothered to read the full text
of Mr LK Advani's letter to the Prime Minister, written on August 13, or,
having read it, he decided to ignore its thrust and contents to serve his
own perverse agenda. Mr Advani says in his letter, "Let it be clearly
understood. The problem in J&K today is not Hindu versus Muslim; nor is it
even Jammu region versus the Valley." Having said this, Mr Advani
contextualises the problem as a clash between 'nationalists' and
'separatists'. Mr Gandhi contests this view. Surely Mr Gandhi does not
believe that the hordes of Kashmiri Muslims -- actually, tens of thousands
of them -- who tried to march to Muzaffarabad, waving the Pakistani flag and
holding aloft placards with Jinnah's portrait, are 'nationalists' whose
hearts beat for India? The use of the national tricolour by the protesters
in Jammu to declare their loyalty to India must be seen against the
green-and-white-and-crescent backdrop of separatism in the Valley.