Living In A Tragic Land In A Tragic Time

Majoritarian hubris and the writers protest.

- Keki N Daruwalla

Writers don’t have bricks, regrettably. They don’t have acid in soda water bottles either, as in the good old days of 1947. The soda incidentally has been consumed for a decent peg of whisky, at least that is what pro-Government spokesmen seem to make out. Retired General VK Singh, now a Minister of State, is even reported to have called us authors ‘daru khors’. When I first got a whiff of this I sent an email asking my fellow protestors, ‘Does he mean me? I’ll sue the fellow.’ We all had a good laugh, and they all replied that he definitely meant me and I should go ahead and sue him. But I think the one defamation case he is facing is enough. Let’s see how he gets out of that one. I wish him luck. But I am left with a thought, why should the general put his foot into matters beyond his ken?

A democracy’s health is known by how it treats its minorities. Creative writers are a minority, rather a minority among minorities. This simple fact escaped the notice of the Government and its extended parivar.