New Delhi:
Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy has sought apology for her decade-old statement in which she accused the 'Indian state' of deploying its Army against people in regions like Kashmir, the northeast. A video featuring Roy has resurfaced in which she can be seen saying, “Pakistan has not deployed its army against its people the way India has.”
At some point of life one can accidentally “say something thoughtless or stupid”, ThePrint quoted Roy as saying.
“Still, it is a matter of enormous consequence and I apologise for any momentary confusion the clip may have caused”, she adds.
The video is doing rounds on social media and twitteratis are pouring in with their views on Roy’s decade-old statement.
Canadian journalist Tarek Fateh took to Twitter to criticize Roy’s statement, as he posted, “Arundhati Roy claims Pakistan has never deployed its military against its own people. Was she blind & deaf when 3M died in the Bangladesh genocide by Pak Army in 1971? Is she unaware of Balochistan? She's literally reading off a Pakistan ISI briefing note.”
#ArundhatiRoy claims Pakistan has nvr deployed its military against its own people. Was she blind & deaf when 3M died in the Bangladesh genocide by Pak Army in 1971? Is she unaware of #Balochistan? She's literally reading off a Pakistan ISI briefing note. https://t.co/09SyUHURF6
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) August 25, 2019
However, Arundhati Roy has been among the intellectuals who have vociferously opposed government policies and have kept registering their dissents. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year, 200 literary giants, including Arundhati Roy, penned an open letter to the voters saying that ‘hate of politics’ must be voted out.
Also Read: Don't want to be assassinated, vote out hate politics: Arundhati Roy among 210 writers appeal voters
In 2017, Pakistan’s permanent representative in the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, while addressing United Nations General Assembly, had quoted Arundhati Roy in her reply to former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj. “Much of what is in the air in India now is pure terror, in Kashmir, in other places,” Lodhi quoted Roy's statement from an article she had written for the Indian Express during the 'Award Vapsi' campaign in 2015.
Also Read: Arundhati Roy dubs all governments 'opportunists' after Pakistan uses her statement to slam India
Arundhati had responded by calling all governments ‘opportunists’. To quote her, “All governments and their spokespersons are opportunistic. That cannot become a reason for writers and journalists not to write what they have to write.”
