Why Narendra Modi is seeking to silence writer Arundhati Roy

Narendra Modi recently won a third term as Indian Prime Minister after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power, despite being part of a minority government leading the National Alliance coalition Democratic Party (NDA). Having hoped to secure another majority from which to pursue his Hindu nationalist or Hindutva agenda, Modi will have to operate within a significantly restricted context. reduced mandate.

His government, dubbed Modi 3.0, has much to do in India, including completing its reform agenda and rethinking its foreign investment policy. Yet, no sooner had the new government been sworn in than the BJP lieutenant governor of New Delhi was appointed given the green light for the prosecution of renowned author and public intellectual Arundhati Roy for remarks she made as early as 2010 on the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Roy and Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a former professor at the Central University of Kashmir, were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism measure. The charges relate to provocative speeches they gave at a seminar in October 2010 that apparently propagated the separation of Kashmir from India.

But all this happened 14 years ago, before the BJP took power nationally in 2014. So why is the Modi government risking international opprobrium by persecuting such a famous personality at the internationally for what she said years ago?

The answer is that starting a battle over Kashmir is an easy victory for Modi-style Hindu nationalism. Anyone who insists on raising the countless problems of militarization, mismanagement, human rights violations and repression in Cashmere tends to be accused of being anti-national, seditious, pro-Pakistani or terrorist.

Modis BJP has been in power for a decade and has introduced significant constitutional reforms. changes in the Jammu and Kashmir region. But the government has did not address activism in the region nor in India loss of considerable territories towards China along the Line of Actual Control.

The BJP chose not to field any candidates in Muslim-majority Kashmir in the 2024 elections (it had two candidates in neighboring Hindu-majority Jammu). But shunned voters candidates from Kashmir's main pro-India parties, preferring local independents who had opposed the Modi government's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status. One of the successful candidates is in jail in Delhi soon after the decision was made in 2019.

As a result, the BJP is clearly ultra-sensitive about Kashmir. Targeting a world-famous figure like Roy in such a vindictive manner is part of a multi-pronged political strategy aimed at baiting and discrediting opponents of Modis' Hindu nationalist ambitions.

Anti-national

The BJP wants to use the persecution of Roy and other progressives and Kashmiris as leverage over its main political rival, the Congress Party-led National Alliance for Inclusive Development (India), which outperformed expectations in recent elections . If he denounces acts like this, he risks being delegitimized and seen as anti-national. If he remains silent, he risks alienating his own progressive supporters.

Meanwhile, any talk of Kashmir is a dog whistle for right-wing Hindu nationalists. They tend to view any reference to human rights and freedoms in Kashmir as a sign of seditious tendencies.

So the prosecution of Roy and Sheikh Showkat Hussain for speaking out on the issue is also aimed at galvanizing the BJP's own support base. And that's a message for other Modi critics: if someone with Roy's profile can be targeted, so can you.

Become a target

This is indicative of a larger pattern in Indian politics under Modi. This type of targeting is particularly pronounced against those who defend democratic values ​​and criticize Modi's authoritarianism, but who have also spoken out in support of the rights or aspirations of the Kashmiri people at any time in the past.

I know this from bitter experience. I am an academic and author of Kashmiri origin who focuses on democracy and human rights in India and beyond. In 2019 I provided testimony at a US congressional hearing on Kashmirthat pro-Modi government news agencies sought to repress.

In February 2024, I was invited by the Congress-ruled state of Karnataka to a constitutional convention. But when I arrived in India, I was entry refused through immigration, although they hold all valid papers. Orders from Delhi, that's all I was told. I was detained under armed guard and deported. Several weeks later, I received a notice of intention to revoke my Overseas Indian Citizenship (OCI).

Throughout this time, I have been subjected to coordinated and vicious attacks on social media from prominent right-wing figures and Modi-supporting accounts. The chorus of online hatred focused on a 2010 tweet of mine regarding Kashmir, which was cited as evidence of my anti-national views. When Congress leaders expressed my support, the Karnataka BJP called me Pakistani sympathizer who wants India to break up and criticized #AntiNationalCongress for inviting me.

I have traveled to India several times since 2010. The problem was not my 2010 tweet that I posted. explain in some details. This was my most recent work on issues such as increasing authoritarianism under Modi, the use of anonymous political financing instruments called electoral bondsand the treatment of dissent by the BJP government. Even though I grew up and worked in India, I can't know when I will see my only livelihood parent once again an elderly and sick mother unable to visit me.

Various other authors, journalists, academics and activists have been targeted in the same way. Many of those who have spoken since Srinagar or Delhi were imprisoned.

The persecution of Roy is part of this larger pattern that attempts to delegitimize any criticism of Modi and his government and suppress free speech while trying to trap the opposition into being branded anti-national. The persecution of Roy and Showkat must be seen for what it is: a failed move that is part of a strategy designed to continue to undermine democracy in India.

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