[1]Noted social activist and writer Arundhati Roy on Sunday stressed the need to intensify the revolutionary movements to fight oppression by the state against the people. Speaking at a meeting organised by “Virasam” (Revolutionary Writers' Association) at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram here, Ms Roy said that the successive governments have made lives of common people miserable during the last 20 years by adopting the policies of globalisation, economic liberalisation, free market etc. She added that the reforms being implemented since the last 20 years have only contributed to the declining living standards of common people.
“The reforms being taken up by the governments under the guise of free market regime have resulted in 30 per cent growth of military forces while adivasis forest areas faced extinction. The policy-makers have conspired to evacuate adivasis from forests under the name of Operation Green Hunt. Ironically, the people’s organisations instead of revolting against these policies are maintaining silence,” Ms Roy said.
While appreciating the recent ‘Bharat Bandh’ against FDI in retail sector, she questioned why parties and people were not agitating against incidents such as Gujarat riots. Referring to the ban on Revolutionary Democratic Front imposed by the state government, she said the people’s organisations have failed to express their anguish over the decision. Ms Roy alleged that the governments have mobilised lakhs of security personnel as part of Operation Green Hunt under the pretext of combating Maoists but they were instead resorting to attacks on innocent tribals. She alleged that the governments were branding Muslims as ‘terrorists’.
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