Jethmalani: Arundhati is entitled to her right to expression

Two days after disapproving the accusations made by BJP on the Centre's three-member team of interlocutors, Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani today said that Arundhati Roy is fully entitled to her right to freedom of expression even though he "sees no merit in her observations".

Two days after disapproving the accusations made by BJP on the Centre's three-member team of interlocutors, Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani on Thursday said that Arundhati Roy is fully entitled to her right to freedom of expression even though he "sees no merit in her observations".

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"I do not approve of what Arundhati Roy has been saying on Kashmir these days. I do not see any merit in her observations. Yet, it must be kept in mind that she is fully entitled to her right to freedom of expression," Jethmalani
told reporters in Allahabad.

He was responding to queries on Roy's recent comments, which has ensued the demand that she, along with Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, be tried for sedition.

The comments come barely a few days after Jethmalani, who has been elected to the Upper House on a BJP ticket, had
sharply criticised his party's vociferous protests against Centre's chief interlocutor to Kashmir Dileep Padgaonkar's
reported statement that Pakistan had a key role in resolving the Kashmir issue.

Differing from the party line, he had called BJP's accusations that the panel was internationalising the Kashmir
issue as "childish and churlish".