Author Arundhati Roy is facing a criminal complaint for a comment made by her in her speech on National People’s Registry (NPR) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC) during a protest.
Author Arundhati Roy is facing criminal charges after she had a police complaint filed against her as reported on 27th December 2019. The award-winning author was booked for a comment she made during her “controversial” speech at the University of Delhi (DU) regarding the NPR-NRC. The complaint was lodged in Delhi’s Tilak Marg police station by advocate Rajiv Kumar Ranjan, who has demanded that an FIR be registered against her.
The FIR against the author has been requested under Sections 295A- deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs; 504-intentionally insulting, and thereby gives provocation to any person, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace, or to commit any other offence; 153- wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot, and 120B- party to criminal conspiracy-of the Indian Penal Code.
The author had urged netizens ‘lie’ during census over NPR, or give ‘fake names and addresses.” The author had told the crowd that the NPR- National Population Register- would serve as a database for the NRC. But what’s even more shocking was that Roy had said that the Modi government shouldn’t be given the remaining four years,” the complaint said, as reported by News18.
In a controversial comment, Roy said, “But we have to fight them for the next 4 years. Firstly, we should not give them four years, but we must have a plan. When they come to your house asking for your name, you give them some other name — like Ranga Billa, Kung-Fu Kutta, give your address as Seven Race Course road and let’s fix one phone number. But we need multiple subversions. We were not born to face lathis and bullets.”
Uma Bharti, a Bhartiya Janata Party leader, commented, “I ashamed to take the name of such a woman that idolises people like Ranga-Billa. Her views are not only anti-women, anti-humanity, but also shows a very disgusting mentality.”
Roy later clarified on 27th December that was she intended was to “propose civil disobedience with a smile,” and also blamed media houses for misinterpreting her speech. This controversy comes after the ongoing protests against the government’s CAA, NRC, NPR bills.
Feature Image Credits: PTI file
Shreya Juyal
