Why Modi’s Government Is Targeting Booker Prize Winner Arundhati Roy
(Photo: Arundhati Roy. Courtesy Creative Commons.)
June 23, 2024
Some political pundits were expecting Narendra Modi to be a moderate in his third five-year term as Prime Minister since his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is dependent on allied parties. Instead, within five days of taking office, Modi’s government signaled a warning to media critics in India as well in the West.
On June 14, judicial authorities in Delhi were asked to prosecute Arundhati Roy under a stringent anti-terrorism law, for a speech she made on Kashmir 14 years ago. Under the law, Roy, 62, an author, can be imprisoned for years without charges.
The case against Roy “is the latest in a series of similar actions taken against writers, poets, journalists, academics, and activists by Indian authorities…with some individuals spending years in jail,” Karin Karlekar, an official of PEN America, said in a statement. PEN is a New York based organization which champions the freedom to write and seeks to defend the liberties that make it possible.
At a conference in 2010, Roy said “Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this.”
Roy was criticized in India for being disloyal to the country and there were protests outside her home in New Delhi. In defense, Roy wrote, “what I say comes from love and pride…it comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians... Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds."
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