Afzalnama
Arundhati Roy writes in a cover-story in Outlook magazine:
If opinion polls, letters-to-the-editor and the reactions of live audiences in TV studios are a correct gauge of public opinion in India, then the lynch mob is expanding by the hour. It looks as though an overwhelming majority of Indian citizens would like to see Mohammed Afzal hanged every day, weekends included, for the next few years. L.K. Advani, leader of the Opposition, displaying an unseemly sense of urgency, wants him to be hanged as soon as possible, without a moment’s delay.
It is not the judiciary or even the police (from whom not much better was expected anyway) but our press that comes out looking worst in the story that Roy narrates. (She asks rhetorically, “Shall we pause for a moment to say a few hosannas for the Free Press?”) Apart from this condemnation, the essay pays tribute to the courage of people like S.A.R. Geelani who’ve gone through hell and still find resources to raise their voices in protest. In fact, the same can and should be said about Roy herself, who, despite crude attacks on her as a publicity-seeker, has never taken the easy way out into silence.
Of course, the Roy piece also appeals for justice. Will it be granted? Here’s a question for readers: why is it that any sign of imaginative protest, even when reportedly aided by nationalist Bombay films like “Rang de Basanti,” is always missing if one is dealing with the national question?
