Mangalore: Arundhati Roy Calls for Fight Against Communal Minds

by Melka Miyar
Pics: Spoorti Ullal
For Daijiworld Media Network

Mangalore, May 19:  "The Gujarat massacre  under the Narendra Modi government  in 2002 was an election campaign. After the brutal display of butchery, he came back to power with a two thirds majority." said Arundhati Roy,  noted writer and Booker  prize  winner.

She was speaking at a national seminar on 'Media and Communalism' organized by  the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum at T V Ramana Pai Conventional hall on Saturday .

"Modi was actually banking on the horror. At the same time, he started to reward killers. The outrage expressed by all has helped Modi to propagate his election campaign." she said.

"After the massacre, a total of 289 cased had been filed under POTA. Out of which  286 were against Muslims and one against a Sikh." asserted Arundhati Roy.

"When the Sabarmati Express was torched in the year 2002,  nobody knew who did it. We will never get to the bottom of the story.  When you see an attack, you will never know who did it," she exclaimed.

"Killing is not a new thing for India. We see similar things  happening in Kashmir and the North East. But the experiment was  tried in Gujarat. The same experiment is also tried now in the coastal regions of Karnataka."  she opined.

The Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is really the ideological heart of BJP. Munje,  the predecessor of the RSS founder , Hegdewar had met Mussolini of Italy  those days and his ideology was propagated here. The  RSS was founded in the pretext of  recovering  and rejuvenating the  Hindu State. But it was  only  to ill-treat Muslims, just like Hitler had treated Jews."  she said.

"From Munje to Modi, the goal, ideology and strategy has been consistent. This is an organization which promotes ruthlessness and hatred. The RSS has managed to change public discourse in the country. We must not take this threat lightly. They are trying to make a standardized majority and speak on behalf of them. Hence, we have to be militants in our actions," she said.

Justice Rajinder Sachar delivered the inaugural address. Praful Bidwayi, senior journalist and columnist, New Delhi, Nupur Basu, Bangalore based senior journalist and film maker, were the other speakers on the occasion.

Abdusalaam Puttige, editor of Varta Bharati and G Rajashekhar, writer,  were the guest speakers.  C N Shetty, President, Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum, DK district, presided over the function.