Shashi Tharoor deplores Arundhati's romanticization of killers as Gandhians with guns

Shashi Tharoor deplores Arundhati’s romanticization of killers as Gandhians with guns

Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor crossed swords with writer-activist Arundhati Roy. Shashi Tharoor in an email to the members of Kerala International Center stated that though Arundhati Roy expressed long-discredited ideological arguments, the ongoing talks of pressing sedition charges was silly.

Internationally acclaimed writer Arundhati Roy was recently dragged into the deck of controversies when she demanded Azadi to the Kashmir region during her speech in New Delhi. Earlier in an interview with David Barsamian, the Director of Alternative Radio, she had commented that it is often forgotten that Kashmir was never a part of India. She also had stated that the people of Kashmir view Pakistan as being very vital for the success of the rising freedom movement in Kashmir. Roy’s views on the Indian Military were also extreme, her words often hovering around the theme that military regime equals oppression of the true sentiments of the people of Kashmir.

Arundhati Roy has also been under gun point for her repeated views favoring Pakistan and militancy in general. Many of her articles have appeared in magazines in which she has allegedly elevated the Maoists to the position of ‘Gandhians’. In the mail to Kerala International Center, Shashi Tharoor stated that while he admires Arundhati Roy’s novel immensely, ‘her romanticization of killers as "Gandhians with guns" was deplorable’. Tharoor opposed her views with the point that these ‘Gandhians with guns’ were in fact responsible for the killings of many an innocent Indian and that it is sad for the people who have been subject to the violence of the guns. “The harm was done by what came out of the guns”, he says.

Roy has received widespread criticism on her Pakistan inclined views on the Kashmir issue. The Government has retaliated strongly against her views and many political parties such as the BJP have demanded that she be stripped off her honors and subject to exile from India for harboring anti-national sentiments. Many critics have pointed out that her conveniently failing to mention the atrocities prevalent in Pakistan have led to her being labeled a ‘pseudo-socialist’ and that her views can be well interpreted as a last straw towards publicity.