What are Arundhati Roy's real views on Kashmir? India a controlling force?

Roy has also written on the conviction of Afzal Guru who was hanged after being convicted in the Parliament attack case of 2001.

Actor Paresh Rawal took to his Twitter account to say, " Instead of tying stone pelter to the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy." He had also commented, "70 lakh Indian army can't defeat azadi gang of Kashmir - Arundhati Roy .Her birth certi in fact is a regret letter from maternity ward."

It was found that the tweet was in reaction to an interview Roy had given. However it turned out that the news itself was fake. It was a non-existent interview which Roy is said to have given during her trip to Srinagar recently. Now that it is said that the interview never took place, let us go down memory lane and see what Roy's views on Kashmir and Afzal Guru were.

An occupying force:

The writer has maintained that India is an "occupying force" in Kashmir. She has said that India wields its power through the barrel of the gun. It may also be recalled that in 2010, an FIR alleging sedition was filed against her by a Kashmir Pandit. The allegation was that she had held a seminar with the Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

It was further alleged that she had said Azadi was the only way for the Kashmir problem to end. The matter was dropped after the Union home ministry decided not to pursue the case.

In a 2011 write up titled "The Dead Begin to Speak Up in India," she had said, "Kashmir is in the process of being isolated, cut off from the outside world by two concentric rings of border patrols - in Delhi as well as Srinagar - as though it's already a free country with its own visa regime. Within its borders of course, it's open season for the government and the army. The art of controlling Kashmiri journalists and ordinary people with a deadly combination of bribes, threats, blackmail and a whole spectrum of unutterable cruelty has evolved into a twisted art form."

Posthumous sedition for Nehru:

She has said that the ultimate rights over Kashmir belonged to the people of Kashmir. Independence is what they wanted she had also maintained while also adding that their choice must be respected.

On the sedition charge she had said that if the same were to be filed against her for speaking her mind on freedom of Kashmiris, then a posthumous sedition charge should be filed against Jawaharlal Nehru as well.

Afzal Guru conviction hasty:

Roy has also written on the conviction of Afzal Guru who was hanged after being convicted in the Parliament attack case of 2001. She had said that the conviction was based on flimsy evidence and real justice was not done.

She referred to the hanging in 2013 as a stain on democracy. She went on to write:

"In a moment of rare unity the Indian nation, or at least its major political parties - Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist party of India (Marxist) - came together as one (barring a few squabbles about "delay" and "timing") to celebrate the triumph of the rule of law. Live broadcasts from TV studios, with their usual cocktail of papal passion and a delicate grip on facts, crowed about the "victory of democracy". Rightwing Hindu nationalists distributed sweets to celebrate the hanging, and beat up Kashmiris (paying special attention to the girls) who had gathered in Delhi to protest.

Even though Guru was dead and gone, the commentators in the studios and the thugs on the streets seemed, like cowards who hunt in packs, to need each other to keep their courage up. Perhaps because, deep inside, themselves they knew they had colluded in doing something terribly wrong."

OneIndia News