‘Seditionist’ Arundhati Roy

Roy says Kashmir is not an 'integral part of India'

The Indian government continues its use of underhanded tactics to punish regime opponents, now going after award-winning author and public intellectual Arundhati Roy for comments she made over 13 years ago. The original FIR, registered in 2010, refers to a speech Roy had given at a seminar on the Indian regime’s record in the disputed territory. The Same FIR also charges Syed Ali Shah Geelani (late) and several other prominent Kashmiri figures for similar speeches at different events around the same time.

Roy had said Kashmir is not an “integral part of India”, referring to the claim made by several Indian politicians and echoed by PM Modi and the BJP while ‘justifying’ their illegal change of status for the disputed region in August 2018. Roy’s remarks should not have been controversial, but bad reporting and a disinformation campaign led by the BJP and its affiliates at the time mean that only a handful of references were made to her next sentence — “Even the Indian government has accepted in the UN that it’s not an integral part of India.”

Roy was referring to the many UN resolutions and debates on Kashmir, which include India accepting a plebiscite — which New Delhi refuses to hold — to determine its future. UN Resolution 47 notes that “both India and Pakistan desire that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.” New Delhi effectively said Kashmir is a part of India if Kashmiris vote for it to be, not that it is an “integral part” of the country.

Interestingly, Roy also went on to criticise the lack of justice for all victims of the Kashmir dispute, including Kashmiri Hindu pandits who had to flee the region during the peak of violence in the area. This issue is often raised by BJP leaders, but this part of her speech was conveniently ignored by her opponents. Roy may be many things, but she has always been consistent, using her fame to draw attention to rights abuses across the world, no matter the perpetrator or target.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2023.

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