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Arundhati Roy seeks citizenship for Taslima

Special Correspondent

Calls for campaign for repeal of laws threatening freedom

— Photo: V. Sudershan

FOR A CAUSE: (From left) Writer Arundhati Roy, theatre personality Girish Karnad and social activist Mahasweta Devi at a press conference held under the Forum for the Protection of Free Speech and Expression in support of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Writer and social activist Arundhati Roy on Wednesday sought citizenship to Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen and the immediate and unconditional release of human rights activist Binayak Sen, Govind Kutty and other journalists, who have been jailed for raising issues of civil rights and minorities.

Experienced journalists and peace activists who understood the realities of the situation were the only hope of “righting this ship” that was tilting dangerously and was about to tip over. “If it does, everybody will suffer, the poor definitely, but the rich too,” she said appealing to the people to initiate a campaign demanding the repeal of laws that did not merely threaten speech but freedom itself.

Addressing a press conference here, Ms. Roy said religious fundamentalists, especially those from minority communities, were often inadvertently playing out a script written for them. Their outrage, genuine though it might be, had become a dependable, predictable and extremely useful device to further the agendas of others.

“Liberals often make the mistake of believing that free speech is a fundamental right given to us by the Constitution — and that when it is curbed, either by the state or by vigilante militias, it is because the Constitution is being subverted. This is not true. Free speech is not our constitutional right. It is a contained right, beset with caveats that are always used by the powerful to control and dominate those who are powerless,” Ms. Roy said in a statement that was endorsed by Mahasweta Devi, Girish Karnad and other intellectuals.

She was critical of several laws that infringed upon the basic rights of people including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, the Madhya Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.

“Some of these laws contain provisions whose sole purpose seems to be to criminalise everybody and then leave the government free to decide whom to imprison.”

Meanwhile, the All India Milli Council has expressed annoyance at Ms. Nasreen’s continued “antics.”

Despite forceful demonstrations against her and petitions to the government to prevent her from spreading canards against Islam and its Prophet, her “mischief is unabated,” the council said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The council requested that the government should not extend her visa.

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