Roy is a hopping activist with no commitments
The last thing Jammu and Kashmir needed at this hotheaded moment was misplaced activism, especially of the kind that people like Arundhati Roy propel. This kind of activism usually screams its guts out, queers the pitch of everyone around it, mostly kills negotiation and takes the issue into the dangerous zone of hyperventilation.
J&K, as we all are often told, is the world’s worst flashpoint. It burns perpetually, and more intensely now than ever before. Under the circumstances, stoking fires through any means — foul or fair, oral or action — can only be deemed dangerous, inflammatory and, yes, seditious too.
By suddenly landing on the Kashmir issue, out of nowhere one must point out, Roy has trigerred a whole lot of debate, but more alarmingly, she has created a situation which is dangerous not just for the nation but also for the people she is supporting.
Espousing the cause of the poverty-stricken, the havenots, the displaced population is a good thing. But J&K is not about poverty. It is a different ballgame altogether, something that needs careful handling, a very cautious approach and a negotiation that is comprehensively measured. None of which makes the staple for Roy’s ill-timed diatribe in support of what she called the people of Kashmir.
Despite being a Goddess of potent writing, Roy can be directly accused of being a hopping activist. She gets added to an issue in no time and moves on equally speedily. From Narmada to Maoists to now J&K, she has spent little time with any of the issues after stoking them. In that context, and due to her star power, these issues do get prominence in the media but that does not keep her in the loop for long.
Roy has never been associated with Jammu and Kashmir in any capacity, not even having written about it much. One wonders why and where she has popped up from. Is it because prior to the visit of US president Barack Obama, there needed to be a scream campaign around J&K and no one could do this job better than Roy?
Such speculation will never be answered decisively but seems to not be totally without reason. After all, Roy is a stranger to J&K and the timing of her going into paradise with questions and accusations looks amply suspect.
Over and above that, and despite the fact that our Government never really had any intention of putting Roy’s J&K “activism” on a leash, one wonders how long would she be talking about it and if she has really already moved on. One only hopes that she realises that the trail she has left behind will take a very long time to mend. Because, J&K is not about curbing of freedom of expression, it is about a nation’s freedom to use all power within its means to hold its boundaries together. The situation in Kashmir is not just tense it is also not fully within control. Anytime, the bloodbath can spurt, anytime anything can happen there. The Valley people do not need someone to tell them how bad the situation with them is. They are already stuck with a slew of surreptitious forces who tell them morning, noon and night that they are living in hell. The actual instruction to the populace is “create hell.”
So, to let Roy or any other person walk into this ticking minefield of sentiment, and lead the situation even more astray than it already is, can be described as nothing but lunacy of the Government. First, it lets the situation in the Valley go out of hand by twiddling its thumb over Omar Abdullah’s apparent naivete. Then it even mulls on diluting the Army’s power in the strife-ridden State even though the Army had nothing to do with the civilian protests that turned bloody and fatal. Next it allows a Roy-Gilani togetherness, not just in Delhi but also in Srinagar where she should never have been allowed to step in with all the vitriol she was carrying against the establishment. Next, it says it might try her for sedition! And then says it can’t!
With such a blundering administration at hand, and unheeding, uncaring voices that will bleed all kinds of wounds raining in from all sides, the UPA has given rise to a chaos it is totally not equipped to handle.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, October 31, 2010
J&K, as we all are often told, is the world’s worst flashpoint. It burns perpetually, and more intensely now than ever before. Under the circumstances, stoking fires through any means — foul or fair, oral or action — can only be deemed dangerous, inflammatory and, yes, seditious too.
By suddenly landing on the Kashmir issue, out of nowhere one must point out, Roy has trigerred a whole lot of debate, but more alarmingly, she has created a situation which is dangerous not just for the nation but also for the people she is supporting.
Espousing the cause of the poverty-stricken, the havenots, the displaced population is a good thing. But J&K is not about poverty. It is a different ballgame altogether, something that needs careful handling, a very cautious approach and a negotiation that is comprehensively measured. None of which makes the staple for Roy’s ill-timed diatribe in support of what she called the people of Kashmir.
Despite being a Goddess of potent writing, Roy can be directly accused of being a hopping activist. She gets added to an issue in no time and moves on equally speedily. From Narmada to Maoists to now J&K, she has spent little time with any of the issues after stoking them. In that context, and due to her star power, these issues do get prominence in the media but that does not keep her in the loop for long.
Roy has never been associated with Jammu and Kashmir in any capacity, not even having written about it much. One wonders why and where she has popped up from. Is it because prior to the visit of US president Barack Obama, there needed to be a scream campaign around J&K and no one could do this job better than Roy?
Such speculation will never be answered decisively but seems to not be totally without reason. After all, Roy is a stranger to J&K and the timing of her going into paradise with questions and accusations looks amply suspect.
Over and above that, and despite the fact that our Government never really had any intention of putting Roy’s J&K “activism” on a leash, one wonders how long would she be talking about it and if she has really already moved on. One only hopes that she realises that the trail she has left behind will take a very long time to mend. Because, J&K is not about curbing of freedom of expression, it is about a nation’s freedom to use all power within its means to hold its boundaries together. The situation in Kashmir is not just tense it is also not fully within control. Anytime, the bloodbath can spurt, anytime anything can happen there. The Valley people do not need someone to tell them how bad the situation with them is. They are already stuck with a slew of surreptitious forces who tell them morning, noon and night that they are living in hell. The actual instruction to the populace is “create hell.”
So, to let Roy or any other person walk into this ticking minefield of sentiment, and lead the situation even more astray than it already is, can be described as nothing but lunacy of the Government. First, it lets the situation in the Valley go out of hand by twiddling its thumb over Omar Abdullah’s apparent naivete. Then it even mulls on diluting the Army’s power in the strife-ridden State even though the Army had nothing to do with the civilian protests that turned bloody and fatal. Next it allows a Roy-Gilani togetherness, not just in Delhi but also in Srinagar where she should never have been allowed to step in with all the vitriol she was carrying against the establishment. Next, it says it might try her for sedition! And then says it can’t!
With such a blundering administration at hand, and unheeding, uncaring voices that will bleed all kinds of wounds raining in from all sides, the UPA has given rise to a chaos it is totally not equipped to handle.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, October 31, 2010
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