Gandhi was a corporate agent and it was greatest falsehood to worship him: Arundhati Roy

Gorakhpur: Booker prize winning writer Arundhati Roy called Mohan Das Gandhi as the ‘first corporate agent of this country.’ Roy, author of the acclaimed novel ‘God of Small Things’ further said ‘it was one of the greatest falsehood in this country to worship him (Gandhi) who wrote horrible things about Dalit, women and poor.’

Arundhari Roy’s remark evoked resistance from a youth who asked her not to call Gandhi a ‘corporate agent’ to which Arundhari Roy replied, “I have studied a lot about him (Gandhi) and said this on the basis of whatever he has written between 1909 to 1946.”

She was speaking as the chief guest on the opening of the three-day long 10th Gorakhpur Film Festival –Cinema of Resistance— organised here at Gokul Athithi Bhavan, Gorakhpur on Saturday in memory of painter Chitt Prasad, comrade Govind Pansarey and Bangladeshi activist Avijeet Roy.

Arundhati Roy [File Photo]

She lashed at the ‘corporate controlled system of the country,’ saying that the nation was not run by prime minister Narendra Modi but rather by big corporate honchos like Ambanis, Tatas among others. Terming the corporates as ‘baniyas,’ she said they controlled everything right from big media houses to small companies manufacturing commodities like salt, cosmetics among other things.

The writer even flayed the Jaipur Literary festival for not serving its basic purpose due to the influence of corporate houses that financed it. “There were much talks of free speech at the Jaipur literary festival. Writers like Salman Rushdie advocate free speech there but the corporate houses that fund the event are opposed to the idea of free speech,” Roy quipped.

Quoting Baba Bheemrao Ambedkar that caste and capitalism were the biggest enemy of the society, the writer said that these two were the biggest concern for the country having a divisive society. Raising question over the motive of Ford and Rockefeller Foundation, which has been set up to strengthen democratic values and to fight for human values, the writer said the main objective of the two were to turn the world into a ‘safe place for the propagation of capitalism.’

Few days back Justice Katju (Retd) had called  Gandhi a cunning hypocrite and agent of British rulers.