Individuals in both India and outside have been criticising the Narendra Modi government after the path was cleared for prosecution of Arundhati Roy in a 2010 case.
Delhi LG VK Saxena on 10 October 2023 approved the prosecution of anti-India activist Arundhati Roy and another accused in a case from 2010 over their provocative speeches about Kashmir.
Delhi LG has found a prima facie case against the duo under section 153A, 153B and 505 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Section 13 of the UAPA deals with punishment for unlawful activities for advocating, abetting or inciting any unlawful activity and is punishable with imprisonment for up to seven years.
However, a section of liberals from various corners of the world were seemingly triggered by this recent development. In their profound grief and anger, they warned Narendra Modi — “Hands Off Arundhati Roy”.
Assorted World Liberals Warn PM Modi: Hands Off Arundhati Roy
Arjun Sethi, a self-identified ‘Human Rights Defender’ and lawyer on 10 October posted in X, “The timing of this is not coincidence. The Modi regime is finally set to prosecute Arundhati Roy.
Suggesting Israel’s counter-offensive against a terrorist attack by Hamas to be an inspiration for Roy’s possible prosecution in India, he further wrote, “Netanyahu’s brutal war in Gaza, with the approval of global powers, will embolden authoritarians across the world”.
US-based lawyer Arjun Sethi is a vocal critic of Indian PM Narendra Modi who was tweeting vociferously during the anti-CAA protests in India.
During the farmer’s protest in 2021, Sethi gave a clarion call to protests, advocating that PM Modi be ousted from power.
Arjun Sethi is also a recipient of the Soros Equality Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations — owned by George Soros. Notably, OSF is known for funding leftist organisations and individuals.
As Arjun Sethi raised gave the call — others followed. Next on the list was Naomi Klein — a professor at University of British Columbia — who quote retweeted Sethi’s post.
She captioned, “Message to Narendra Modi: Hands Off Arundhati Roy” and threatened PM Modi with dire consequences.
Now, Just 4 minutes after Naomi’s tweet, another individual showed his support for Arundhati Roy with the same tagline “Hands Off Arundhati Roy”
This individual is none other than Yanis Varoufakis — an Economic Professor and former Finance Minister of Greece. He posted on X, “Mr Modi, hands off Arundhati Roy, India’s, and perhaps the world’s, finest author”.
Now, many in India do not know about Yanis Varoufakis but If Athens-based journalist Paul Antonopoulos is to be believed then no one takes him seriously in Greece anymore.
Further, in a post, Paul writes that “Yanis was part of the government that opened the gates so that 100,000’s of illegal immigrants could flood into Greece from 2015 onwards, implanting a large Pakistani community that nobody wants, which has led to a huge spike in sex crimes”.
Yanis Varoufakis is so infamous in Greece that he faces “threats of violence when in public in Greece because of his role in the ruination of the country during the difficult years of the 2010s”, writes Paul.
However, the tweet of the insignificant former Greek Minister was picked up by several Indian liberals to promote their agenda.
Using Yanis’ tweet for his Anti-Modi narrative, Bhakt Banerjee aka Akash Banerjee wrote on X, “That’s the former Greek Finance Minister’s message to PM Modi. We can choose to live in the bubble of Godi Media that worships the Supreme Leader – or we can see how the name of India and its great democratic reputation is being dragged through the mud. Our nation deserves better”.
Anti-Modi YouTuber Akash Banerjee is a frequent fake news peddler. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he had claimed that the former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat doesn’t want to fight the coronavirus because it has a right to live.
The interview from which the video was taken focused on the steps TS Rawat had taken to combat the virus while serving as the Chief Minister, including quarantining individuals, tracing contacts, and halting its spread.
Nowhere in the video did TS Rawat make any suggestion that the virus shouldn’t be fought, instead emphasising keeping social distance, frequent hand washing, and the use of masks.
The liberal gang, in their zeal to target the current Indian dispensation, maybe forgot to check that the case against Arundhati Roy.
Why Arundhati Roy Will Be Prosecuted?
In 2010, Arundhati Roy in an event had claimed that Kashmir was not an integral part of India. An FIR was filed in 2010 itself by a Kashmiri activist against Arundhati Roy and other for provocative speeches on Kashmir.
Moreover, in this same speech, she has given multiple such problematic statements. The entire event video is seemingly unavailable, and only snippets of it can be found online. So, quoting Arundhati Roy from a video available online, she said “This is an upper caste Hindu state waging a continuing struggle against the people”.
Arundhati Roy and her provocative speeches
In 2013, Arundhati Roy at Northwestern Law School in Chicago had notoriously claimed that the deceased in Godhra train burning tragedy were coming back from the destruction of disputed structure at Ram Janmabhoomi called ‘Babri Mosque’. However, the disputed structure was destroyed on 6th December, 1992. On 27 February 2002, an Islamist mob had set Sabarmati Express train on fire at Godhra railway station. 59 karsevaks, pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, were burnt alive by the Islamist mob. However, Arundhati gave a decade old ‘context’ to justify the act of the violent mob by misidentifying the victims.
Further, in her articles, she has frequently passed unverified claims about the Gujarat riots in 2002. For instance, she once wrote in outlook, “Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn’t very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved ‘OM’ on her forehead”.
However, when a BJP leader tried to follow up this horrific case and get justice for Sayeeda, he found out that “no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in urban or rural Baroda”. The BJP leader wrote in outlook, “Subsequently, the police sought Roy’s help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation. Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power to issue summons. Why is she hedging behind technical excuses?”
That’s not all.
In 2011, she had claimed that the Indian State has been at war with its own citizens. She further claimed that Pakistan has never deployed military against its own people.
The viral video was used by Pakistanis in 2019 to further their narrative on Kashmir after the abrogation of article 370. After much criticism from not only Indians but Balochs and Bangladeshis, Arundhati Roy chose to apologise over her controversial remarks.
In 2019, during the heights of NPR-NRC controversy, Arundhati Roy had asked people to lie about their names and addresses in NPR forms.
She reportedly said, “When they come to your house asking for your name, you give them some other name — like Ranga Billa, Kung-Fu Kutta, give your address as Seven Race Course road and let’s fix one phone number”. Later, a police complaint was filed against her in Delhi under Sections 295A, 504, 153, and even 120B of the Indian Criminal Code.
In a 2021 interview with German state owned DW News, self-described “intellectual” Arundhati Roy made false claims about India’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and engaged in blatant fear-mongering by spreading false information to undermine the Indian government’s efforts to contain the pandemic in the nation.
Without any credible evidence to back up, she alleged that Modi government is using Covid Pandemic for genocide of Indian Muslims. She blatanly peddled a false narrative that Muslims were being persecuted across the country during the Covid Pandemic. As can be seen few years down the line, no such genocide of Indian Muslims took place.
The Anti-India propagandist went so far as to assert that the government was using the virus to its advantage in a manner akin to how the Nazis conducted the Holocaust.
As can be seen, Roy never let facts get in the way of sensational propaganda.
Read More: Urban Naxal GN Saibaba Heads Back to High Court: A Saga of Red Terror