Recently Arundati Roy created yet another history by declaring independence for Kashmir. Nothing new for this knee-jerk author who wants to be seen where ever trouble brews. We have seen her recently with the PWG exremists when she wrote 'Walking with the comrades' - a supposedly great intellectual matter on the causes of naxalism in India ( probably hoping for another Booker Prize ). But the irony was that she was doing this after the Dantewada massacre.
Now she has uttered her verses on Kashmir as that is boiling right now as this is yet another 'progressive' note from a 'progressive' author.
Not sure where the author's feelings were about the suicide of farmers in Maharashtra while the farmers of Gujarat are well off, staff members of 'Dinakaran' were burnt alive in broad day light in Tamil Nadu ( does this not qualify for freedom of speech ??), SKS Microfinance episodes in Andhra Pradesh and what not.
And as usual, 'The Hindu' carried the speech, her hurriedly written email and a glowing editorial defending the freedom of speech. Some questions though remain unanswered : Where were her feelings during the Nandigram episodes when an entire district was held to ransom by ruling party hooligans in West Bengal? Did not the fundamental right of the freedom to live peacefully infringed upon by the WB govt ? Probably there are different yardsticks for different political aura !
When C.N.Annadurai gave up the cause for sedition, he was hailed a hero. Did he not understand the futility of trying to separate from India from an economic and military point of view ?
Can Arundati Roy cite a specific reason for separation from India ? What are the 'stone-pelters' and 'un-nailed-patriots' going to gain by separating from India ? What is their economic route to prosperity ? Would that not mean Kashmir would be on its way to become another Pakistan or Afghanistan ?
Let us not underestimate the sacrifice that India has done for J&K. Every penny that the Kashmiris spend today or the J&K govt spends is from the ordinary tax payer from the rest of India. Even the security accorded to Arundati while in Kashmir would have been from the pockets of the Shanmugams and Subramaniams of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
In their 15 minutes of spotlight and heat of the circumstances, let not the authors like Arundati forget that such freedom of speech is available only in the Indian side of Kashmir and not on the Pakistan occupied side.
Let the papers like 'The Hindu' understand that such freedoms of speech exist only in India and not in their utopian fatherland - China.
