Ms. Roy speaks at Writers’ Association

Noted social activist and writer Arundhati Roy stressed the need to intensify revolutionary movements to fight oppression by the state against the people speaking at a Revolutionary Writers' Association meeting in Hyderabad. Ms. Roy said that the successive governments have made lives of common people miserable during the last 20 years by adopting the policies of globalization and liberalisation, bringing about a sea change in the country’s economy and leaving the ones at the margin of the society extremely vulnerable. She added that the reforms being implemented since the last 20 years have only contributed to the declining living standards of common people.
“The reforms being taken up by the governments under the guise of free market regime have resulted in 30 per cent growth of military forces while adivasis forest areas faced extinction. The policy-makers have conspired to evacuate adivasis from forests under the name of Operation Green Hunt. Ironically, the people’s organisations instead of revolting against these policies are maintaining silence,” Ms Roy said. She explained that the mobilization of lakhs of security personnel as part of the Operation under the pretext of combating Maoists was to attack innocent tribals off their mineral-rich land. She also said that the governments were branding Muslims as ‘terrorists’ as and when it suited their policies.
While appreciating the recent Bharat Bandh against FDI in retail sector, she questioned why parties and people did not agitate against incidents such as Gujarat riots. Referring to the ban on Revolutionary Democratic Front imposed recently by the state government, she said the people’s organisations have failed to express their anguish over the decision and play an instrumental role in India’s ‘democracy.’