A democratically elected totalitarian government, says Arundhati Roy

“Now, we have a democratically elected totalitarian government. Technically and legally, there is no party with enough seats to constitute an opposition. But many of us have maintained for several years that there never was a real opposition. The two main parties agreed on most policies, and each had the skeleton of a mass pogrom against a minority community in its cupboard. So now, it’s all out in the open. The system lies exposed.”

Oh, Bengal!

Was there ever a time when West Bengal was a peaceful land? 

I've been living here since 1971 and have seen only violence in different forms. Police vans invading the houses in deep hours of the night and killing the dissident young folk at random, ghastly fight between rival political party members,  violence in electoral booths, violence in educational institutions, state massacre of the hapless people at Marichjhapi, brutal killings of the Anandamargis, violence in forcing people to attend meetings at Brigrade Parade Ground, violence in establishing the Promoter Raj, violence in taking away lands from the poor, senseless killing of the Maoists in Jangalmahal, Nandgram genocide etc etc.

The current rulers have also proved their fascination for violence in an extra-ordinary way as you see in the just concluded Loke Sabha poll. 

Violence escalates each day. Violence gets to be the order of the day. 

Despite my leanings towards the left, I've began to increasingly believe that it's the left - the CPIM in this case - who is responsible for the state of violence that is today. As it has moved away from its ideologies over time, the Leftists, like their comrades elsewhere in the world -  has resorted to violence more and more to retain their grip on the people.

The leftists here seem to have gone a full circle. From their zero to zenith position,  they have long been on their downturn spiral. Having got just two seats - that too in two remote districts - out of forty two, they can well be a signboard party in the coming assembly election. What a fall!

Saffron on Us

Who could ever thought that the BJP alone would emerge as the single party with the majority? Who could ever think the BJP alone would bag 284 seats - much more than 272 seats required to form a government?

Narendra Damodardas Modi's was not just a wave, it was a sunami that inundated the whole of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, to use the old cliche. 

Can you explain it? 

Nobody apparently loves NaMo, but he wins in a big way. Not because of his party, but because of his own charisma or whatever.

One way to explain it: the dismal performance of the most parties, especially the Congress who was deep in multiple scams, and pushed the country to the edge with people reeling under sky-rocketing price rise, among other things. The mandate might be a reflection of the desperation of the masses to lift out of the pit they were thrown in. It could be the casual but reckless let-us-try- Modi -this- time attitude.

The widespread desperation had wind from media blitzkrieg generated by fund from top-notch industrialists like, for example,  Ambanis who spent crores for victory of Modi - their blue-eyed boy.  In the process, NaMo obscured his own party and reigned supreme as a messiah of the masses during the election process.

As we see now, he 's a successful salesman. He may have a bloody past, his look may be hard and menacing, his words harsh and rhetorical, but he is spot on. He's unstoppable. That's Modi magic.

With Narendra Modi in power, the right-wing force in India blossoms in full. 

Do Literary novels have any future?

 I've no intention of writing fictions in the form of tweets or text messages – nor do I see my future in computer-games design. My apprenticeship as a novelist has lasted a long time now, and I still cherish hopes of eventually qualifying. Besides, as the possessor of a Gutenberg mind, it is quite impossible for me to foretell what the new dominant narrative art form will be – if, that is, there is to be one at all.

Ruskin Bond goes hi-tech!

"I've abandoned it (typewriter). I'm very high tech now. I write by hand”.