http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp? ... 15:33%20PM
Daily Times launch sets the ‘peace ball’ rolling
Flags are shrink-wrap, shrouds: Arundhati
Gupta says countries with McDonalds do not war with each other
By Fasih Ahmed and Shoaib Ahmed
LAHORE: Declaring herself a citizen of the world, keynote speaker at the Daily Times seminar on Peace and Freedom in South Asia, Arundhati Roy described flags as pieces of cloth that shrink-wrap the brain and are later used for shrouds.
The launch event held on Thursday at the Pearl Continental was attended by more than 1,500 people in an unprecedented display of joie de vivre by Lahore audiences.
Speakers included Shekhar Gupta, editor in chief of the leading publication Indian Express, which comes out in eight editions, and N Ram, editor of Frontline, a publication of The Hindu group of newspapers.
Former foreign minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali and former Lt-Gen Naseer Akhtar were also on the panel that included Daily Times publisher Salmaan Taseer and editor Najam Sethi, who lauded the “good men and women in both countries” for their efforts in suing for peace.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ram said September 11 had irreversibly altered the world.
The ruling rightwing coalition led by the BJP, he said, has adopted the US definition of terrorism. “You cannot term every activity as terrorism and then launch a holy war,” he said. Mr Ram said the BJP government had hijacked Indian nuclear policy and forced Pakistan’s hand at Chaghai. He criticised the Indian stance towards the All-Party Hurriyat Conference and slammed chauvinism and communalism.
Hailing the media in both countries, Mr Gupta said each time there is an Indo-Pakistan crisis (“Every three months”) interaction between Indian journalists and their Pakistani counterparts goes up. “This does not happen between any other group of professionals,” he said. The Indian Express editor said he was pleasantly surprised by the degree of freedom the press enjoyed in Pakistan.
He characterised India as an imperfect democracy and Pakistan as an imperfect dictatorship. “I asked Najam (Sethi) if McDonalds had come to Pakistan,” Mr Gupta told the crowd. “He held his head and said, ‘oh god, about 20 or 30 of them!’ This is good because countries that have McDonalds do not go to war with each other.”
Referring to democracy as a monster of many forms he asked the audience not worry about the BJP: “
We’ll take care of them.” He said the anti-Pakistan rhetoric of the party had failed to translate into electoral success for the party in Uttar Pradesh, the largest Indian state with a devout BJP following. Kargil, he said, however, had deepened suspicions and was indefensible. “People were saying ‘look, this is what happens... these are the people you wanted to make friends with’,” he added. “Having said that, we missed an opportunity at Agra.”
Greeted with a standing ovation, Ms Roy, Booker Prize winning author of The God of Small Things, which has sold over six million copies, said her star billing overwhelmed her. She started off with the disclaimer: “I am not here to represent India.” In the forty-minute address, the social activist famous for her stand against globalisation and dams like the Narmada spoke on fame, fortune and life on the Indian subcontinent.
“Things get so heavy,” she said, “I sometimes feel we have to approach them some other way.” Ms Roy spoke about growing up in the arcadia that is Kerala and “culturally speaking” making the long journey to Delhi. “We are worthy of literature,” she said, referring to the people of the subcontinent. Declaring herself a citizen of the world, Ms Roy said she wore no flag in her heart or head. “Flags,” she said, “shrink-wrap one’s brain and are then used as a shroud.”
Ms Roy said her work had prompted many in India to brand her a traitor and that she had been hauled over the coals for being passionate, “as if that’s a crime.” In 1997, when Ms Roy won the prestigious award for fiction, the Indian government, she says, “paraded me out along with Miss Universe and the man who invented our nuclear bomb and is now our president.”
The summer of 1998 changed everything for Ms Roy. The nuclear detonations at Pokhran and Chaghai happened while she was promoting her book in London. “Two women came up to me at the signing asking if I could speak with them,” she said. “I told them I would as soon as I was done with the signings.” She said she felt concerned because the women had been “a bit stiff”. Two hours later she met the women and they asked Ms Roy if they could hug her. “Literature is the opposite of the nuclear bomb,” she declared.
“We are people ... we should know each other’s stories, each other’s gaalis (expletives).” Ms Roy read excerpts from her essay The End of Imagination, written in response to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, and a smaller piece, The Bomb and I. “The bomb is a challenge to god,” she said. “And we should think about raising our voice because the bomb is not in our backyard, it is in us.”
She said the governments of both countries have imperilled the lives of its citizens.
“Kashmir is the rabbit the government pulls out of its hat,” she said. “It is not the only issue. It is only something that distracts attention from the real issues.” Ms Roy said social injustices had become entrenched and were hampering all progress. “We should be talking about and fighting for the rights of the people. For the guarantee of their freedoms as citizens and people.” The author said she was “deeply suspicious” of nationalism especially since it was inevitably a cloak for communalism.
Regretting the BJP-condoned pogrom in Gujarat earlier this year, Ms Roy said we should respect strength not power. “I am not courageous,” she said. “I am only trying to speak the truth.” She said this was the role of all art, to push the boundaries of the imagination and to challenge, provoke and stimulate.
“Democracy is not a monster,” she said referring to earlier comments made by Mr Gupta. “I see it as a plant, a tree. Something that cannot be kept in a room and windows locked.” Ms Roy said the oldest democracy in the world (America) was imploding because of market fundamentalism and its war on terror (“Or the war that terrorises,” she said) and the largest democracy (India) was imploding because of religious fundamentalism.
Ms Roy will be at the Kinnaird College for Women today and at Avari Towers Karachi on August 18 for the last leg of the Daily Times seminars.
oldies must remember we used to call him Mushahid "Mandela" Hussain. 
like that guy De-saaa-Yiiii 
