By democracy I don't mean democracy as an ideal or an aspiration. I mean the working model: Western liberal democracy, and its variants, such as they are.
Yet, the closet commies have always sold the ideal or Jannat version of communism, for the simple reason that the there is no successful working model. (At the time of writing, China detained several thousand separatists - after killing perhaps a couple of hundred. Separatists to blame, naturally)
She also explains another principle she ostensibly believes in:
As a writer, a fiction writer, I have often wondered whether the attempt to always be precise, to try and get it all factually right somehow reduces the epic scale of what is really going on.
Obviously she has made no attempt to be precise in the essay, for instance:
- The protests [Amarnath land transfer, 2008] were massive. They were democratic, and they were non-violent.
- Speaking of consensus, there's the small and ever-present matter of Kashmir. When it comes to Kashmir the consensus in India is hardcore. [Really? then the secular newspaper polls are incorrect? Also, we don't want Kashmir, we want to give it all the Azadi it wants]
- [T]he BJP government in Gujarat, led by chief minister Narendra Modi, presided over a carefully planned genocide of Muslims in the state. [Only in a democracy like India one can get away with slander so sinister]
- The Muslim community has seen a sharp decline in its fortunes and is now at the bottom of the social pyramid, along with Dalits and Adivasis.
- In 1992, a mob, egged on by Advani, demolished the mosque. Feeding off the communal frenzy it had generated, the BJP, which had only two seats in Parliament in 1984, defeated the Congress in 1998 and came to power at the Centre. [Actually BJP had 85 seats in 1989, before the mosque demolition - so at the very least it wasn't only due to the mosque issue]
- It amounts to an average of Rs 8,000 (about $170) per family per year. Enough for a good meal in a restaurant, including wine and dessert. [A potently bogus argument, not even a good contrast in irony. That would be the price tag of a high end restaurant. Here is a better contrast - Kobe beef, which the current American president seems to like, costs about that per dish, sans the wine and dessert!]
- It helped that the polls were scheduled so that the first districts to vote were the most militarised even within the Kashmir Valley. [Insinuation that people were forced to vote at gun point - there is no evidence this actually happened]
- No one spoke about the curfew [in Kashmir], the mass arrests, the lockdown of constituencies that were going to the polls.
- Indian nationalism (corporate as well as 'Hindu', shading into imperialism) [note the "tva" is dropped. So, all Hindus are bad now. Hello secular Hindus!]
- In a public speech, Varun Gandhi called for Muslims to be forcibly sterilised [Didn't hear this one, though there were other things said. It was actually Varun's late daddy who was gung ho about sterilization (while allegedly fertilizing random Delhi women along with his buddies.)]
- Of course, we haven't yet reached the stage where the Government of India is even prepared to admit that there's a problem, let alone negotiate a solution. [Huh?]
- [W]here it will find purchase in the anger of the young among India's 150 million Muslims who have been brutalised, humiliated and marginalised.
- Something about the cunning, Brahminical, intricate, bureaucratic, file-bound, 'apply-through-proper-channels' nature of governance and subjugation in India seems to have made a clerk out of me.
- In eastern India, bauxite and iron ore mining is destroying whole ecosystems, turning fertile land into desert. [Cultivation also destroys ecosystem, perhaps more so. Non-industrialized nations invariably have more inefficient agricultural practices and hence require more land area under cultivation]
Roy performed a coup of sorts when her essay appeared in the leftist American website - Huffingtonpost.com. Her earlier attempt to gain acceptance in America had been a complete failure, she was panned by everyone from left to right. America was still patriotic and it would be years before they would be able to create a critical mass of easily hypnotized sheeple. This has now been achieved, mostly by rapidly growing immigrants, declining education standards and perhaps the natural down tide of civilizational fatigue which some people believe is unavoidable.
In any case, her essay (September isn't November, I am so cool so buy my next book) appeard on HuffPo and she was right on the money. Naturally, now her essays will contain items that will titillate the American left, such as bashing certain past leaders of the country. In any case it is a fine balancing act because she has to carefully straddle the thin line between a welfare state and outright communism - American people are stil very uncomfortable with the idea of communism. Perhaps it was this commercial aspect which made her tone down her support for communism. Having been bitten once, she is not going to risk her new found popularity in America.
The index of development
Clearly Arundhati Roy would agree that democracy alone is not a good determinant of how successful a nation will be. We find that there is another factor with much better predictive power. The nations where Arundhati Roy is popular are screwed up or about to be screwed up.
For instance:
India: Screwed up (she will agree)
Pakistan: Totally screwed up since Arundhati Roy became hugely popular, she writes for Dawn
US: Not that screwed up but since her entry all sorts of hell has broken loose
EU: Roy is much more popular in Eurozone than in US, always has been. Eurozone was a laggard compared to US
Turkey: Getting screwed up as Turkish people have begun offering hugs to Madam Roy.
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