DU VC calls Arundhati Roy’s remarks ‘hate speech’ at law faculty event

At a DU Law Faculty event on hate speech, Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh cited Arundhati Roy’s old remarks on the Indian state as an example of divisive, harmful rhetoric.

Delhi University vice chancellor Yogesh Singh, on Tuesday, quoted Arundhati Roy, while giving an example of “hate speech” during a programme in DU’s Law Faculty on “Hate speech and Electoral Politics in India”.

At a DU Law Faculty event on hate speech, Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh cited Arundhati Roy’s old remarks on the Indian state as an example of divisive, harmful rhetoric. (AP)

“The Indian state, from the moment it became a sovereign state, from the moment it shook off the shackles of colonialism, it became a colonial state and it has waged war since 1947 in Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland, Telangana, Punjab, Goa, Hyderabad. If you look at it, it is like a State that has been perpetually at war and a military war. Deploying the army against its own people, the State of Pakistan has not deployed its army against its own people, in the way the democratic Indian state has. If you look at who are these people that the Indian state chose to fight: in all Northeastern states, they were tribal people; in Kashmir it was Muslims; in Telangana it was tribal people; Hyderabad it was Muslim; in Goa it is Christian; in Punjab it is Sikh. So, you see this perpetual upper caste Hindu State perpetually at war,” Singh quoted Roy from an old video.

Speaking on the same, VC Singh added, “This is hate speech. This is the pure definition of hate speech and Arundhati Roy and all intellectual people should avoid making such statements.This is not in favour of them or the country, and such statements pollute children and citizens’ minds, because these statements are made from a very selective perspective. Moreover, she is saying Pakistan is better than us in this respect. I am not going into that debate but I just wanted to point out an example of hate speech.”