“From now to the [2019] elections there will be a continuous circus of arrests, assassinations, lynchings, riots and bomb attacks. We have learnt to connect the season of elections with the onset of all kinds of violence,” said author Arundhati Roy in a scathing criticism of the Central government.
She was speaking at a Press Club of India event on Thursday, where several people had gathered to condemn the nationwide crackdown on rights activists on Tuesday.
Fascist government
Referring to submissions made by the police in court, that those held were a part of an “anti-fascist” plot to overthrow the government, she said, “This means that the police are admitting we have a fascist government and we can only overthrow that. At least we have some clarity on that now,” she remarked.
On demonetisation
“It has been one year and nine months since Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on TV, perhaps without the knowledge of his own Cabinet and announced the policy of demonetisation. The RBI has now said that 99% of the currency has been returned. There have been reports that note ban cost the livelihood of over 1.5 million people,” said Ms. Roy.
She further added, “After demonetisation, came the Goods and Service Tax [GST], structured in ways that were a blow to small and medium businesses while several corporations had multiplied their wealth several times over.”
Raising the issue of the Rafale deal she said, “The real fire of ‘Make of India’ is the Rafale aircraft carrier deal. The PM once again announced the deal against all known protocols. What kind of accountability can we expect from this [government]?”
She also criticised the government’s attempts to “privatise education” and said that it was an attempt to “dismantle educational institutions”. “We have seen how both the teachers and students of Jawaharlal Nehru University have been discredited. Even more serious than this is the rapid privatisation of education. This policy is nothing else but the re-brahminisation of education. By privatisation of education, even the smallest benefits of reservation are being denied to SC, ST and OBCs.”
“The BJP now has the money, the EVMs and the voter list. With the elections approaching, what plans do they have in store of us?” she remarked.
