Arundhati Roy who is known for her extremist leftist views has published an article in The New York Review of Books. The tenor and the intent of the article is clearly to defame prime minister Modi and at the same time paint India in a very bad light before the rest of the world. It is clear that even though Roy tried to represent herself as some sort of an unbiased intellectual, political considerations must have been kept in mind while writing this article. Titled “Election Season in a Dangerous Democracy”, this work is nothing but an attempt to spew venom against prime minister Modi and instill unnecessary fear and panic among voters in order to drive them away from the BJP.
At the outset, she quotes an Indian Express story which read, “Those held part of anti-fascist plot to overthrow govt, Pune police tell court.” And thereafter, Roy expresses astonishment that we are up against a government whose own police calls it fascist. This is an outright concoction. It is actually the urban maoists who found it convenient to label the government as fascist and by “overthrow” they meant use of violent means to replace the current government.
Roy has devoted a major portion of her article to the so called human rights activities and lawyers who were arrested in connection with a plot to assassinate prime minister Modi. Pune police has found clear evidence of maoist links justifying these arrests. However, Arundhati Roy claims that these activists have been arrested in flimsy charges with little or no paperwork. Not only this, she has even claimed that these groundless arrests were made in order to divert public attention.
Roy also claimed that none of those arrested were present at the Elgar Parishad rally in Pune that took place on December 31, 2017. However, this is simply immaterial. They have been arrested for inciting violence and not for organising the rally and moreover, presence at the spot of occurrence is not a sine qua non for proving the commission of such an offence. They could have very well conspired elsewhere about abetting Bhima Koregaon violence and that would be equally punishable.
Roy’s article seems more like a part of Congress/ leftist political propaganda in view of the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Almost as if required by some political masters, she tried launching a tirade against the Modi government. She made a naive attempt to corner the government on make believe issues that the opposition is trying to raise. In her article, Roy went on to claim that demonetisation and GST were chaotic decisions and large scale failures. She even claimed that the Rafale fighter deal is a massive scam. Apart from this, she went on to claim that the Modi government is undermining educational institutions. She also attacked Hindutva in between her work. She claimed that there are a group of several right-wing Hindutva organizations which form a terrorist network among themselves. However, the only thing that was consistent in her article was a barrage of unsubstantial claims. It seems that all along she is trying to claim that the Modi government is becoming unpopular and is now on a rampage to keep things under its control. However, none of her allegations are supported by any facts or evidence.
Roy is simply indulging in fear mongering. Just like her political masters, she is trying to instill a sense of fear among the minorities of India and the Dalits that BJP is their enemy and that BJP will carry out lynching and murderous campaign in order to pin them down and remain in power. However, most of her allegations are a consequence of make believe claims and her extremist ideology. This is the reason why none of her allegations are supported by ground realities. It is shameful how Arundhati Roy is misrepresenting India and painting it in a bad light in front of other countries.
