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India should let Arundhati Roy speak up her mind, not prosecute her.
BY BASHY QURAISHY | Tuesday, 2 November 2010.
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark— My advice to the Indian power elite is to let Arundhati Roy speak her mind for justice for all – Indians, Pakistanis and most of all for Kashmiris.
[There are early signs of a whisper campaign and prosecution against Ms. Roy inside India. A mob of extremist Hindu political group has attacked her house. Prominent Indian news outlets confirmed a sedition case was being prepared against her. Normally the accused in Indian sedition cases receive harsh treatment. Other reports suggest she might be dragged to court in other cases as a means to get to her in an indirect way. Roy has angered the Indian government and other hardliners by saying Kashmir ‘is not an integral part of India’.]
Prosecuting Roy has two distinct disadvantages for India. It will shame India forever because the whole world is watching and it would also show the ugly face of a sham democracy where 600 million people live on $1 dollar a day.
Indian leaders and religious forces do not get tired of reminding the world how democratic India is, while simultaneously denying the Kashmiris and other minorities their right of self-determination.
It would do India a great deal of good if it lets Kashmiris decide their own fate through a referendum [India is obliged to that anyway because it has signed a UN resolution concerning this issue]. Kashmiris can join India or Pakistan. A free Kashmir will help India create a better relationship with Pakistan and help to eradicate extremism and terrorism and minimize horribly huge military expenditures in both countries.
Bashy Quraishy is a PakNationalists.com columnist and an author of seven books on minorities in Europe. See his biography in the right sidebar of this page. He can be reached at
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Until the end of last centuary, one was innocent until proved guilty, now one is guilty unless HE proves his innocence. This reflects the changed mindset of our collective ‘human’ society. Instead of working out the causes of the dispute, people find it easy to rely upon stereotypical trends.
Indian society is no exemption, nonetheless, no one has the right to hurt anyone who dares to speak his or her mind. To supress anyone’s views could be another wrong and two wrongs don’t make one right.
Perhaps the Indian policy makers would realise that a nation consists upon individuals and freedom of each individual is obligatory as much as helpful to resolve the problem.
“reminding the whole world” ? that would be nice, but i am afraid nobody has uttered a single word about it in the west. No wonder is it, or is it ?
But dont hold your breath. Perhaps the ISI can whisk her away and give her asylum, and do more inside work for Kashmir and muslim india.
Kashmir is like Palestine, where there is a will, there is a way. The solutions for which lie in the political unity of Muslims, working on common agenda, and flexing our muscle, without ruling anything out.