The Hindu : Muthanga firing not justified: Arundhati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Muthanga firing not justified: Arundhati

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE FEB. 26. The Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy, today said the violence which rocked Muthanga following the Government action to evict volunteers of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha from the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary would be a blot on the State's history.

Speaking to journalists during her visit to the Bathery taluk hospital to see the tribals injured in the police firing and the wildlife sanctuary where the firing had taken place, Ms. Roy expressed the view that the firing at a crowd comprising women and children could not be justified even if it was done in the face of strong provocation.

The writer hoped the Government would keep its promise to give land to landless tribals and made it clear that she was also against attempts to crush the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha and its struggles. In her opinion, such movements for just and humanitarian causes had to be encouraged. But she was not in favour of an armed struggle that would lead to violence and bloodshed.

In answer to a question, Ms. Roy said she also would not demand the resignation of the Chief Minister owning responsibility for the tragic fate of the tribal activists. She felt by making such a demand, she would be politicising the tribal issue. Such a demand would also shift public attention from the main issue which was the need to give land to landless tribals, she said.

Ms. Roy, who has donned the mantle of a social activist after winning the Booker Prize, had called on the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leader, C. K. Janu in the Kozhikode district jail yesterday.

After visiting the tribals under treatment at the Government taluk hospital in Bathery, she demanded that there should be action to trace the tribal people who were missing after the Muthanga operation.

A battery of mediapersons followed Ms. Roy during her mission to Muthanga to declare solidarity with the tribals' struggle. Local social activists who have made no secret of their dislike for C. K. Janu and her agitation inside the wildlife sanctuary also met the writer.

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Muthanga firing not justified: Arundhati