Mangalore: Arundhati Roy Calls for Fight Against Communal Minds

Comrades I had the honor of being present at this speech
and she was brilliant as usual .The Karnataka Communal Harmony forum
also conducted an excellent workshop for two days on "Media and communalism".

Mangalore: Arundhati Roy Calls for Fight Against Communal Minds

Mangalore, May 19: "The Gujarat massacre under the Narendra Modi government in 2002 was an election campaign. After the brutal display of butchery, he came back to power with a two thirds majority." said Arundhati Roy, noted writer and Booker prize winner.

She was speaking at a national seminar on 'Media and Communalism' organized by the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum at T V Ramana Pai Conventional hall on Saturday .


(The dignitaries on the dais)

"Modi was actually banking on the horror. At the same time, he started to reward killers. The outrage expressed by all has helped Modi to propagate his election campaign." she said.

"After the massacre, a total of 289 cased had been filed under POTA. Out of which 286 were against Muslims and one against a Sikh." asserted Arundhati Roy.

"When the Sabarmati Express was torched in the year 2002, nobody knew who did it. We will never get to the bottom of the story. When you see an attack, you will never know who did it," she exclaimed.
(Rajinder Sachar Delivering his speech)

"Killing is not a new thing for India. We see similar things happening in Kashmir and the North East. But the experiment was tried in Gujarat. The same experiment is also tried now in the coastal regions of Karnataka." she opined.


(Arudathi Roy delivering her speech)

The Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is really the ideological heart of BJP. Munje, the predecessor of the RSS founder , Hegdewar had met Mussolini of Italy those days and his ideology was propagated here. The RSS was founded in the pretext of recovering and rejuvenating the Hindu State. But it was only to ill-treat Muslims, just like Hitler had treated Jews." she said.
(A jam packed hall-The room was overflowing with people who had come from far and wide and latecomers had to make do by standing in the back)

"From Munje to Modi, the goal, ideology and strategy has been consistent. This is an organization which promotes ruthlessness and hatred. The RSS has managed to change public discourse in the country. We must not take this threat lightly. They are trying to make a standardized majority and speak on behalf of them. Hence, we have to be militants in our actions," she said.

Justice Rajinder Sachar delivered the inaugural address. Praful Bidwayi, senior journalist and columnist, New Delhi, Nupur Basu, Bangalore based senior journalist and film maker, were the other speakers on the occasion.

Abdusalaam Puttige, editor of Varta Bharati and G Rajashekhar, writer, were the guest speakers. C N Shetty, President, Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum, DK district, presided over the function.

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