Quotable quote

"This is the wonderful thing about democracy. It can mean anything you want it to mean.

"... Criminals are not meant to resign. They're meant to be charged, tried and convicted. As those who burned the train in Godhra should be. As the mobs and those members of the police force and the administration who planned and participated in the pogrom in the rest of Gujarat should be. As those responsible for raising the pitch of the frenzy to boiling point must be. The Supreme Court has the option of acting against Modi and the Bajrang Dal and the VHP. There are hundreds of testimonies. There is masses of evidence.

"But in India if you are a butcher or a genocidist who happens to be a politician, you have every reason to be optimistic. No one even expects politicians to be prosecuted. To demand that Modi and his henchmen be arraigned and put away would make other politicians vulnerable to their own unsavoury pasts. So instead they disrupt Parliament, shout a lot. Eventually those in power set up commissions of inquiry, ignore the findings, and between themselves makes sure the juggernaut chugs on.

"Already the issue has begun to morph. Should elections be allowed or not? Should the Election Commission decide that or the Supreme Court? Either way, whether elections are held or deferred, by allowing Modi to walk free, by allowing him to continue with his career as a politician, the fundamental, governing principles of democracy are not just being subverted but deliberately sabotaged. This kind of democracy is the problem, not the solution. Our society's greatest strength is being turned into her deadliest enemy. What's the point of us all going on about 'deepening democracy', when it's being bent and twisted into something unrecognizable?

"What if the BJP does win the elections? After all, George Bush had a sixty per cent rating in his War Against Terror, and Ariel Sharon has an even stronger mandate for his bestial invasion of Palestine. Does that make everything all right? Why not dispense with the legal system, the constitution, the press, the whole shebang, why not chuck morality itself, and put everything up for a vote? Genocides can become the subject of opinion polls, and massacres can have marketing campaigns.

"Fascism's firm footprint has appeared in India. Let's mark the date: Spring 2002. While we can thank the US president and the Coalition Against Terror for creating a congenial international atmosphere for fascism's ghastly debut, we cannot credit them for the years it has been brewing in our public and private lives." 

-- Arundhati Roy, "Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy"