The case against Arundhati Roy
Deze gastbijdrage is van Aletta André, correspondent in New Delhi. Het stuk is ook op haar site te lezen.
A case hase been filed against Arundhati Roy – a writer/activist who in the Netherlands is most known from her novel The God of Small Things. The reason: in October she spoke at a conference in Delhi on Kashmir titled “Azadi [freedom], the only way”, together with Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and a few others.
The charges include, I quote: “sedition; promoting enmity between classes; imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration; insult intended to provoke breach of peace; and false statement, rumour circulated with intent to cause mutiny or offence against public peace – all of which have to be read with Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967.” With the case being registered, Roy now faces arrest and if convicted, the maximum punishment is life imprisonment.
Earlier, after seeking political opinion, the Union Home Ministry had decided not to file a case against Roy and the others, but the police registered a case anyway this week after certain individuals filed complaints.