Touted is a good word to use in connection with India’s democracy: Arundhati Roy

New Delhi (June 28, 2012): World famous author and Bookers prize winner, Arundhati Roy in a recent interview said that [touted] is a good word to use in connection with India’s democracy.

“It certainly is a democracy for the middle class. In places like Kashmir or Manipur or Chhattisgarh, democracy is not available. Not even in the black market. Laws like the UAPA, which is just the UPA government’s version of POTA, and the AFSPA are ridiculously authoritarian—they allow the State to detain and even kill people with complete impunity. They simply ought to have no place in a democracy. But as long as they don’t affect the mainstream middle class, as long as they are used against people in Manipur, Nagaland or Kashmir, or against the poor or against Muslim ‘terrorists’ in the ‘mainland’, nobody seems to mind very much” she said.

Excerpts from an interview to Panini Anand are published in recent issue of Outlook magazine. Sikh Siyasat readers may find full text published by outlook at: ‘Terrorism Isn’t The Disease; Egregious Injustice Is’; [Jul 02, 2012 Issue; Outlook].