Arundhati Roy to speak on 'Waqt ki Aahat'
New Delhi: In what may mark writer-activist Arundhati Roys return to controversies, the Booker-winning novelist is scheduled to address a gathering here on the topic "Waqt ki Aahat".
Roy, who rose to global fame as the new deity of prose in 1997 after bagging the most prestigious literary honour 'The Booker Prize' for her debut novel will be in conversation with Alok Rai (Professor of literature at the Department of English, Delhi University) on Wednesday.
Speaking to IANS ahead of the event, Roy criticised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA dispensation on a range of issues, contending that "I don't think the country has ever been in a situation like this". She said that "there's an ideological preparation to change the constitution" and anticipated that the ruling regime will do "everything they can to re-polarise".
"What I truly fear is that there is a sense this year that the tide is changing and there is a panic among the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, so they will do everything they can to re-polarise.
Although vocal in her criticism of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, Roy has, of late, maintained a low-profile and stayed away from controversies.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
