Sedition or not?

Our reporter Mohit Sharma got a copy of what the Delhi police sent home ministry as full transcript of Arundhati Roy's controversial Kashmir speech. Decide for yourself:

As the buzz over registration of a sedition case against Booker Award winner Arundhati Roy and hardcore separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani took twists and turns over the past few days, MiD DAY managed to get the full speech which Roy had made on October 21 at the LTG auditorium in Delhi.

"Today there are 7,00,000 Army personnel in Kashmir. One can imagine how to breathe through the barrel of AK-47. We are a 'slave' economy, which is growing today.


Arundhati Roy with hardcore separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani at the seminar on October 21

This process has made 80 per cent of this country's people live on only Rs 20 a day," Roy had said in her speech.u00a0 The Delhi police had sent a copy of the same to the Ministry of Home Affairsu00a0 (MHA).

"We got the script of Roy's speech along with Geelani's from a video, and have sent it to the ministry to take a call whether to go ahead with the case or not," said a senior police officer. The Delhi police have sent the speech and a report to the MHA.

Suggesting the Indian government to change its tactics, she had said, "You have to look beyond stone pelting and how the state is using people. The colonial state whether it was a British state in India, or an Indian state in Nagaland, they are in business to create elite to manage their atrocities.

You have to know your enemy and have to be able to respond by aligning tactically, intelligently, locally or internationally. Otherwise, you'll be like a fish in a pond combing the walls and get tied down."

On October 21, an unknown person had thrown a shoe at Geelani at the LTG seminar in the capital. He also got a shock when people from his Muslim community showed up with a group of Kashmiri Pandits in their support at the auditorium.

what Arundhati Roy said

Transcript of her speech on October 21: About a week ago, I was in Ranchi in a Tribunal against "Operation green Hunt" and when I was about to leave, a TV journalist asked me "Madam is Kashmir an integral part of India or not? I replied that Kashmir was never been an integral part of India.

Even Indian govt. has accepted that in UN. In 1947 we were told that India has become a sovereign nation, sovereign democracy but soon Indian military intervened. In Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa, Hyderabad, Junagadh and Punjab India always fought with the minorities.

This is the history of India. This is a historic meeting today in the heart of the capital of a hollow super power. Midnight of 1947 the country's imagination was fired by the spirit of independence. British drew the map and now the Indian govt is behaving like a colonizing power.
u00a0
The elite accuse naxalites of staging a protracted war. The govt relentlessly fights its own people for waging a war as in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Punjab, Kashmir always the minorities be it Sikh, Christians, Tribal, Dalit, Adivasis.

In 2007 during the Amarnath land row in Kashmir I was there in Srinagar and an Indian TV journalist who said that India needs freedom from Kashmir in the same manner as Kashmir needs freedom from India. Today there are seven lakh army personnel in Kashmir.
u00a0
One can imagine how to breathe through the barrel of AK-47. We are a slave economy which today is growing. This process has made 80% of this country's people live with Rs 20 a day. Is this the idea of justice? We are not aligned with all the struggle in the street it is idea for justice.

When I was in Kashmir during Amarnath row and recently to I stayed in a place that was filled with appreciation by people waiting for struggle and I won't let down, even by their own leaders because this is a fight for justice.

In 2007, I wrote that what broke my heart on the street of Srinagar was when people say "Nanga Bhukha Hindustan, Jaan se Pyara Pakistan" and I said no because "Nanga Bhukha Hindustan" is with you, and if you are fighting for a just society the you must align yourself with powers and here are people who have fought their lives opposing Indian state and you must know repression. People who are long associated with Narmada Valley dam and I always say that we must thank these two valleys Kashmir valley and Narmada valley.

In Narmada valley people talked about repression, spying, intelligence operations, etc. you have to decide what kind of justice you want. You can't kill 68,000 of Kashmiri Muslims and call yourself a secular state and can't allow massacre of Muslims in political debate. I have been listening to, watching and following the recent uprising in Kashmir, where innocent people, women, children are taking on the massive army.
u00a0
It is for us people to take it higher because Indian State's tactics is also to wait for the energies to bow down sometime in the name of crisis management, elections, etc. But the point is that people have to look for methods to avoid direct confrontation. You have to ask yourself why the people of Nagaland the Naga Battalion is committing the most atrocities in Chhattisgarh.

After spending so much time in Kashmir watching CRPF, BSF, RRs knocked down by lies, you know Kashmiri CRPF, the Kashmiri BSF all the way to kill people in Chhattisgarh. You have to look beyond stone pelting and how the state is using people.

The colonial state whether British state in India or Indian state in Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, etc. they are in business to create elite to manage their atrocities.

You have to know your enemy and you have to be able to respond by aligning tactically, intelligently, locally or internationally otherwise you will be like a fish in a pond bombing the walls and get tied down and don't pick and choose your injustices because justice is key stone to integrity and integrity is key stone to real resistance.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are purportedly that of Arundhati Roy and not of MiD DAY

Number Game

1997
The year in which Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize

2002
The year Roy went to jail for a day for contempt of court