A few questions for Suzy Mol

* * * Updated * * *

YUSUFALI: He said: "Nay, this was done by - this is their biggest one! ask them, if they can speak intelligently!" (Holy Qu'ran, Sura 21, Verse 63).

Suzanna Arundhati Roy, better known as Arundhati Roy, raises
some important questions in a recent column. She also has a new book to peddle, but that's besides the point.

There was not much noise in the blogosphere about the column. Shivam Vij covered it, Dilip D'Souza ignored it. Usually when that happens, we lose interest.

However, what piqued our interest was that the column came out both on Outlook and The Guardian. The column on Outlook was titled Breaking The News, while the one on The Guardian is called India's Shame.

Sure, some of the differences could be explained away by an effort at internationalization. However, closer scrutiny reveals a lot of differences.

For instance, take this passage from the Outlook version :

The main strategy seems to be to create confusion and polarise the debate on communal lines. The editor of The Pioneer newspaper writes in his columns that Mohammed Afzal was actually one of the men who attacked Parliament, that he was the first to open fire and kill at least three security guards. The columnist Swapan Dasgupta, in an article called 'You Can't Be Good to Evil', suggests that if Afzal is not hanged there would be no point in celebrating Dussehra or Durga Puja. It's hard to believe that falsehoods like this stem only from a poor grasp of facts.

Poor poor Swapan Dasgupta. The man perhaps earns a tiny fraction of what Arundhati has amassed over the years.

[WITHDRAWN]
Arundhati writes that Swapan Dasgupta claimed that Afzal was one of the men directly involved in the attack.

Note: Some readers didn't like the above statement. One could say she was talking about two different columns. I didn't find the other column by an unnamed editor of The Pioneer. If you find the mentioned column, please let us know, we will update the post.

Swapan Dasgupta wrote NO SUCH THING.

God only knows how many Swapan Dasguptas were trampled under Arundhati Roy's Booker fueled juggernaut. You see, she has received a life time membership of the Absolute Moral Authority club. Only she can claim that others propagate falsehood, while no one can challenge the fact that perhaps she didn't even read the Supreme Court verdict. If she did, many of her questions wouldn't even make sense. Only she has the right to make apocryphal references to columnists who can not even sue her back for libel.

After discovering this, we sort of lost interest in the whole thing.
[/WITHDRAWN]

There were many other interesting facts to note, including her method which can only be termed as argumentum ad hominem. Some of her reasoning belies her age and are fit for high school kids. Stating the opponent's argument preemptively does not make it weak. Making statements in the guise of questions is oh so yesterday. But of course, she is beyond reproach, for she has attained the highest honor that can be offered to a person living in the Anglo-world.

While the Outlook column is more communal in tone, the Guardian version spins a conspiracy theory. Apparently The Indian Government has skeletons to hide in its closet. Now, there is a huge difference between the Government then and now, and if indeed there were cover ups and a conspiracy of the scale she suggests, one would think they would be unearthed. No, this simply will not do. We have heard this before. The Government bans websites, unknown youths burn cars in Paris suburbs. You see, by elevating the point of reference you can implicate the whole of humanity for any crime, thereby blaming your enemy by default.

Through her words only one theme emerges and that of extreme indignity of being ruled by Hindus. You see, for an Anglo it is very difficult to live in a country dominated by heathens. They have no respect for us Hindu fascists. Indeed their churches do not teach any better. Hence the condescending tone, hence the utter disregard for any rules of debate. The bloody Hindus are at fault, no matter what. The Raj was better.

The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone
he obeys no orders unless they are his own
he keeps his side arms awful, he leaves them all about
and then comes the regiment and pokes the heathen out.

You see, absent the regiment, Arundhati and her ilk are trying their best to poke us heathens out.

The Barbarindian community wishes Arundhati Roy and the secular Christians of the world Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

NOTE: We apologize for our claim that Arundhati had lied about an editor of the Pioneer claiming that Afzal was directly involved in the attacks. Indeed there was a column which claimed that, read here.