Democracy has been reduced to elections in this part of the world rendering the very meaning of democracy hollow, said celebrated India writer-activist Arundhati Roy at an artist talk at Midas Tower in the capital.
The talk was organised as part of the 10-day Chobi Mela X, which kicked off on February 28 at several venues in the capital.
Arundhati touched upon a number of issues ranging from politics through literature to culture in the session titled ‘Utmost Everything’, moderated by Chobi Mela director Shahidul Alam.
‘Democracy in this part of the world has been reduced to elections and all institutions that are meant to constitute and empower democracy have been violated and penetrated by the powerful quarters,’ said Roy.
Referring to and reading from her political essay ‘Democracy: Failing Light’, Roy said that democracy has been hollowed up of its meaning as a system of empowering people.
‘Democracy, rather, has been narrowed to representative democracy where there is too much representation and too little democracy’, said Roy.
The famous writer, who won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 for her debut novel The God of Small Things, also observed, ‘in most places democracy has paired up with the free market economy to form a single predatory entity where nine people can own more wealth that that of 900 millions combined’.
In the sessions, full of pointed questions and precise answers, Roy also spoke of the ills that the state and the powerful do in the name of ‘development’.
‘Development or the economic growth has been the new mantra by which the state keeps making people’s lives real difficult. It is good that people are now beginning to ask questions as to whose development the corporations or the politicians talk about,’ said Roy, who also criticised Indian government’s apathy to execute a proper water-sharing treaty with Bangladesh.
The organisers of Chobi Mela 2019 were forced to stop all preparations at Krishibid Institution auditorium in the capital to stage the talk by Arundhati Roy as police asked them not to prepare the stage at the venue.The programme was later held in MIDAS Centre on Road 16.
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