India's jet flying in reverse, 'destined to crash', predicts Arundhati Roy
Roy said that after pioneering "really revolutionary campaigns" for wealth and land redistribution in the 1960s, the country's leaders were now courting votes and winning elections by distributing "5 kg rice and 1 kilogramme salt."
FollowArundhati Roy, the winner of the Booker Prize, has compared "modern India" to a jet in reverse, claiming that it is "destined to crash." She was addressing at the publication of the book "Why do you dread my method so much?" on Wednesday, which is a collection of poetry and letters by imprisoned human rights campaigner GN Saibaba.
Roy said that after pioneering "really revolutionary campaigns" for wealth and land redistribution in the 1960s, the country's leaders were now courting votes and winning elections by distributing "5 kg rice and 1 kilogramme salt."
"The leaders of this nation are flying the plane backwards, everything is plummeting, and we're heading for a crash," stated the best-selling novelist. The 62-year-old author characterised India as a country with "advanced jurisprudence," but where rules are interpreted differently based on your "caste, class, gender, and ethnicity."
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In 2017, a Maharashtra court sentenced GN Saibaba to life in jail on the basis that he is associated with Maoists and engaged in acts akin to "waging war against the country." GN Saibaba is wheelchair-bound due to physical infirmities that affect more than 90% of his body.
As a result of the court's decision, GN Saibaba's employment as an assistant professor at Delhi University's Ram Lal Anand College was terminated on March 31, last year.
D Raja, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India, delivered the book at Jawahar Bhawan and demanded that GN Saibaba be freed immediately.
