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

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

Not long ago this Arundhathi declared herself a walking , talking independent republic living parasyte on indian society.

----- Original Message -----
From: Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008 9:53 pm
Subject: [Reader-list] If only Arundhati would quit India... - by	Kanchan	Gupta
To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>

>  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' 
> preachingtreason 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, 
> peoplewith spreading midriffs and receding hairlines do not make a 
> pretty sight
> while manning the barricades. Regis Debray participated in the 
> 'revolutionin 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-
> fightinggeneration. 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 
> suburbanhome 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 
> sinfulJihadistan. 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 
> representingthemselves." 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 
> strangethat 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-
> readingsession 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 
> underthis 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 
> charmingthough 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 
> thousandsof them -- who tried to march to Muzaffarabad, waving the 
> Pakistani flag and
> holding aloft placards with Jinnah's portrait, are 'nationalists' 
> whosehearts 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.
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